A Pointed Journey
by ChaosLilKat
Summary: Oliver has faced many adversaries both on the island and in Starling City but is he ready to face the supernatural? Dean and Sam get information from Ruby about a hideous and violent new plot by Lillith to increase her power. Will they be able to work with The Vigilante? (There seems to be some confusion that I am blending Laurel/Ruby but I am not. Hope that clears things up. :) )
1. Chapters 1-7

**Chapter 1 **

Oliver stood in the alley behind Verdant, again. He felt that lately he was spending as much time lurking in the alley behind his club as in it. Odd though it was that Thea had appointed herself club manager after the Undertaking and his failure to stop it; it made leading his life easier, no one really expected him to be overseeing things so his odd comings and goings didn't seem to attract much attention. The reason for this evening's lurk was Roy's signal arrow stuck high in the alley wall; over the last few months they had worked out a code with that arrow so Oliver would know how fast he needed to get in contact. Looking at where Roy left it, Oliver was pretty sure he had been standing on a trash can, it was almost out of sight of the camera watching the alley. The code was pretty simple, the higher up the arrow was, the more urgent the information Roy had. The text from Felicity about the arrow was pretty standard Felicity speak "It's in all the way, and as high up it is ever been. Come now! " He smiled just thinking of how she must have cringed after she sent that, he loved her like a sister but sometimes he wasn't quite sure if she phrased things like that just to try and get a reaction from him or if she was just that awkward. He heard a noise down the alley and slipped back into the shadows to watch.

He saw Roy approaching their usual spot, he was amazed Thea still let him wear that red hoodie. However the clothes underneath the trademark hoodie were obviously new and high end. Apparently Thea was going with small steps on renovating her boyfriend.

" Roy, over here. " he said.

" Oh hey, there's something pretty bad going on. It's kids man, someone is taking kids. " Roy's voice held something akin to fear, Roy didn't show fear often. It made him take a closer look at the kid.

'What's going on?" He tried to make his voice a bit more calming, Roy was obviously spooked. Electronically disguising his voice made it harder for subtle emotions to come through when he talked, but it was a necessary precaution.

" It's weird….I am not sure how to explain it. Look, you may not believe me but I swear it's the truth. This may take awhile though. You sure you want to hang out back here?" Roy had been trying to figure out where The Vigilante was based out of for months. Oliver had to give him credit for persistence but in this case he had a point, if this was going to take longer than 2-3 minutes someone may see them. Oliver knew about 10 ways up and out of this alley although he wasn't sure the kid could keep up with him, but he knew Roy would not be happy with being carried up onto a roof.

" Ok Roy, see that fire escape? Get up there and follow it to the roof. There's a gap though since the earthquake so be careful." That was the easiest one of the paths Oliver usually followed. Roy rolled his eyes, smirked and hopped up onto the escape. He cleared the gap easy with a nice jump and muscle up to the next level. The kid moved well, almost as well as he did. Oliver followed him up to the roof. Once on top they crouched down out of sight .

Roy looked at him " Was that supposed to be hard? "

Oliver took a breath, stopping any harsh reply. " No, what's this information?" The kid's eyes lost the cocky teenage look and got nervous and a bit wide.

" Ok, this has been going on for about 2-3 weeks now. At first I didn't think anything of kids not 2showing up in the usual places, it's the Glades, people move around a lot so not seeing someone for a few weeks is no big deal. " He stopped as if trying to find the words. " Look the Glades, it has a feel to it, you can tell when things are OK , when people are nervous, if there's a new big bad guy in town. You know? " Oliver nodded for Roy to continue. " Ok so, the last few days, things have felt wrong. Like something big is coming, or some new player. So I started looking into things, asking questions and here's where it gets spooky. I know some of the kids that have disappeared, I know their families, I know who has grandparents, who doesn't ok? Anyway, I went to some of their houses and I was going to talk to their parents but as I was walking up to the first house, I don't know, something told me not to knock on the door."

"So I looked through the windows. The parents were there, but they weren't acting right. They were just staring at each other, not sad, not crying , just blank stares, like zombies or something, no TV on, no movement nothing. I watched for a like 5 mins they didn't move once. I left then because ..well something made me afraid, like I was looking at something totally wrong."

"I moved on to the next house. It's a single mom with a daughter and the mom was sitting out on the porch, humming. I walked up to her and she looked up at me, now it was dark so maybe I was seeing things but I swear she looked at me like I was food, then her face shifted real quick and looked more normal. I asked her if her kid had been sick or something since I hadn't seen her around, she said " Oh no, she's at her grandparents for a trip. Should be back next week. "That lady's parents died in the quake and she has never sent her daughter to see the dad's family, ever. He abused them. I just played along and left quick. I swear though she stared at me the whole time I walked away and….." he trailed off. He looked at Oliver, Oliver saw it again, a deep, deep fear. He remembered that kind of fear, when he had been hunted by Fires and the rest on the island.

" ...and what Roy?"

" I have been in a lot of tight places, in a lot of fights and the look she gave me, the way it felt….it wasn't right...it...it…"

" It felt as if she saw you as nothing but an obstacle in her way, like you were an ant waiting to be crushed. It was cold yet hungry...almost soulless…." Oliver said in a hushed voice.

" Yeah, like that. " Roy was holding his arms tight across his chest and not from the chilly night air either. " So far I know of about 10 kids personally that are gone, I did some snooping and it seems the number may be as high as 20. It's hard to tell, but a lot of people are nervous. They are talking about hearing kids yell "You look like mom and dad but you're not!" at night. I had Thea ask Laurel to ask her dad if there had been any kids reported missing, none of the kids I know that are gone have been reported missing at all and the parents are all still at the houses, acting like everything is ok. "

Oliver didn't know what to make of this, but he had to see for himself. "Can you give me addresses of some of the missing kids?"

Roy nodded and gave him a piece of paper " Here's all the ones I know of personally. Look, I know you're pretty badass in a fight but if I were you, I would not go in there looking for a fight or asking questions. I just...I don't think it would go well. Not that I am telling you your job. "

Oliver smiled a bit at him "Thanks for the heads up. I'll be careful. I am going to check some of these out. Thanks, just sta3y close to your place for awhile ok? "

" Yeah man, home and work. That's it for me for the near future. " Roy stood up and headed back down the escape to the alley. Oliver stayed put for awhile, he liked the night air sometimes, standing above the city on a roof. From up here he could lose himself in the idea that all of his problems were far away and down below, in someone else's life. He started thinking over what Roy had told him, could the parents be being bribed? Maybe selling their kids? What would make someone do that? None of that accounted for the fear that Roy obviously felt and he made it sound like the parents weren't afraid of anything or emotionally upset; maybe some new drug had showed up in his city. He felt his jaw clench at that thought and a surge of anger, after what happened with Vertigo, both times it showed up, he had an incredibly violent reaction to the thought of any more drug dealers setting up shop. He shook his head to clear the anger, took a deep breath and headed across the roofs to Verdant. He had put in some roof access points that led down some false walls to his home away from home. The room beneath Verdant felt more like his home than the Queen mansion did, he wasn't sure he liked that thought and chose to dismiss it. He squinted his eyes against the bright lights as he walked into his base of operations.

"Oh hey Oli, so….about that text...umm it sounded much more professional in my head…." Felicity trailed off and squirmed a bit, dropping her eyes. Oliver smiled a bit at her which caused her to turn quickly away. Felicity was dressed casually tonight, he was surprised at first and then remembered it was Saturday. He hadn't seen her in jeans and a sweater before, it seemed wrong for some reason, like she was beginning to fit it too well with what they did. He wasn't sure how he felt about that. She was in many ways the most important member of their little group and the most vulnerable, she had no survival skills, no danger sense and couldn't lie her way out of a paper bag. She was however, one of the most intelligent, clever and solid people he had ever met. When he had dragged her into this whole life by showing up bleeding in her car, she hadn't blinked, hadn't frozen with fear or confusion, but had acted very decisively and that had saved his life that night. Since then she had been adapting fast and becoming more courageous but her courage was way outstripping her survival skills. He had been wrestling with a way of addressing that with her without crushing her spirit.

" Hey Felicity. " He started putting all his gear away. She looked at him oddly.

"Was the message not that important? I figured you would be going out tonight." Somehow she made that sound like he would be going to dinner or a date, people can adapt to just about anything it seemed.

" No it's important but I think I need to check things out before busting into houses and asking questions. " He replied.

" Oh, so thinking less penetration. You're moving slower Oliver, I approve. It's always good to find out all the quirks before doing something irrevocable, safer too. " She said in a perfectly businesslike tone. He started to count in his head...1..2..3.

"Or rather...um. Sooo... what database do you need me to crack?" He was starting to think that Felicity's brain was incapable of recognizing innuendos until after she spoke them, which of course made it that much more amusing.

" Roy was spooked about something, said things in The Glades felt off, some kids are missing and no one is reporting them gone. I think I need to get out there and see things for myself and not all geared up. " 4He dug through some other clothes he had stored, found a beat up jacket, jeans and a couple of shirts he could layer so he could conceal weapons a bit better. He didn't tell Felicity everything Roy said, it would be hard for her to grasp the significance of it but he did want her to pull some information up.

" Can you do me a favor though? Check the police database and see if there has been any increase in kids reported missing over the last 2-3 weeks or so please. Roy gave me some addresses I am going to check out, I'll put a tracking beacon in my pocket so you can have eyes on me if something goes wrong. It shouldn't but never hurts to be careful. " Besides The Glades is plenty dangerous on it's own not taking the new threat into account.

" OK, do you want me to call Diggle and have him drop by? " Felicity asked. He thought about it, he had been working them all pretty hard lately, and Diggle was trying to cobble together some sort of social life. He owed Dig some time off.

" No I should be ok. You don't have to stay here, I know you can monitor things from home if you want." She had told him she could remote access the computer systems she had set up for him from home if need be. He wasn't sure that was secure but when he had raised that concern with her, the look she gave him was somewhere between offended and pitying; offended that he doubted her and pitying of him for not understanding how technology worked. He decided he didn't want to have a repeat of that conversation ever.

"Umm, I don't have anything going on and, well, I'd rather be here if something came up. " She gave him a little smile but he saw the concern and fear behind it. He was going to dismiss her fears but then remembered how many times she had been there watching him sew his own stitches or fight off some drug or poison, with Diggle he could put on the tough face and go out into the night. Felicity's obvious concern and fear always reminded him of the actual fallout if something happened to him. When it had been just him and Diggle at first leading this life, he had been able to lock away the harsh reality of what him dying would do to others. Diggle had pulled him up short a few times when it became a symptom of a much more dangerous problem. After Felicity joined up and he would see her concern and fear, at first he thought it would make him weaker, more distracted, after all Slade had always said emotions and attachments were distractions to your mission. Surprisingly what he had found was that it had sharpened him, made him more focused. He was more alert, more aware, more strategic and yes in some ways more violent, because he didn't want to fulfill that fear she had in her eyes, that one day he wouldn't come back. So instead of dismissing her concern by saying something trite like it will be fine, nothing will happen he had started a new little ritual when she was there.

He turned and looked her full in the face keeping his face calm and alert while acknowledging and accepting her fear and concern. "Felicity, I will do everything I can to be safe. I'll be back in a few hours." He reached out and held her hand, he squeezed it once and then left.

Oliver swung his leg over his motorcycle and headed off to the first address on the list. Fortunately there were a few houses fairly close together so he could hit a few places and see if every situation was similar. It took him about 20 mins to get to the first house, he parked the bike a few blocks away and hoped that 5it would still be there when he got back. It was The Glades at 930 at night so the chances of the bike disappearing would exponentially increase the later it got, tracking it back down and scaring off the kids who stole it was always a pain. Felicity had added a few aftermarket improvements to make it easy to find in case of theft but still, it took up valuable time. He started walking and within a few minutes understood what Roy had been talking about. The usual late night hangout spots were pretty bare of people, no one was out smoking or at bus stops, he spotted a few of the regular bums and homeless people he saw on his rounds. He had taken to swinging through The Glades a few times a month all geared up and stopping small criminal acts in an attempt to slow crime in the area. It had done some good but now even the bums he saw seemed paranoid and jumpy. He turned down a more residential street that had 2 of the addresses on the list and almost stopped moving, something was seriously wrong.

Every instinct he had developed in 5 years on the island was screaming at him to turn and run yet nothing visually seemed wrong. Cars were parked, some lights were on, tvs were on in a few of the houses but there was a sense of foreboding, of darkness , of almost evil here. He had thought being in the freighter was the darkest place he would ever be in, he had been wrong. He forced himself to move forward, his hands inched closer to the knives he had brought with him.

As he got further down the street, abou block away from the first house, the doors to the house across the street opened up. He made a snap judgement and ducked into some shadows provided by the trees on the street. A couple came out, the man was carrying a child, it looked like a little girl, still in her pajamas and certainly not dressed for the chill night air. The girl was struggling : " NO NO NO NO! Daddy let me go! The ropes they hurt! "

Oliver tensed up, ready to rescue the little girl, then he saw something that made him stop dead in his tracks. The man held up the girl by her arms with one hand, she was bound hand and foot and a woman was coming out behind the two of them. " Let's get on with this. " The woman said " They are waiting and we have two more to get tonight. " She reached up, laid a hand on the little girl's head, muttered something in a guttural tone of voice, the little girl stopped moving, her eyes rolled back into her head and she went limp. As they carried the child under the streetlight, the man took a quick look up and down the street and Oliver swore his eyes had no whites to them, they were jet black , then the man blinked and the eyes went back to normal. They shoved the girl in the back seat of the car and drove off, Oliver slumped against the tree and he noticed his hands were shaking.

**Chapter 2 - One week earlier **

Sam sat down at yet another nameless diner in some backwater town and swore if he had one more shortstack of pancakes he would not have to worry about the coming war between heaven and hell, he would just shoot himself with the Colt and hope wherever he ended up afterwards had made to order omelets, fresh fruit that was composed of something other than grapes and honeydew and maybe, just maybe d6ecent coffee. The only flaw in that theory was the Colt might completely destroy his soul, which still sounded better than another diner breakfast.

He looked across the formica table at his brother, happily devouring bacon, sausage and undercooked eggs as if they were the best meal he had ever had. Sam shook his head and wondered, not for the first time, if in some genetic fluke, Dean had never developed taste buds.

"So Sammy! " Dean said, way too enthusiastically for 8 am "Find anything exciting? " Sam decided to be daring and ordered the skillet breakfast, it had green peppers, which he hoped would have some flavor.

"Not really. Things have been quiet, which is probably bad. " Sam replied in a very flat tone.

" Come on Sam! Be optimistic, maybe all the demons decided that they needed a vacation. Or they could be planning a party for me when I show up! Yeah that'd be awesome! " Dean was still making light of his contract, Sam hated that, but he understood why.

" Sure Dean, ham and hot chicks on every table. Of course they'd be on fire, along with you. "

" Heh, I am always on fire Sam. You know that. " Dean winked at him. Sam shook his head but had to laugh a little. Dean raised his coffee cup as in a salute, appreciating the fact that Sam was willing to laugh with him and ignore the glaring, hellish truth of their lives.

Sam's breakfast arrived and he had to grudgingly admit it was decent, he could actually detect the peppers. They finished up and headed back to their room to see if they could find a job to do. Sam could never decide which part of this life was the best part, he loved the research and could lose himself in it for hours. That skill had served him well in college, but he had to admit there were times that he craved the adrenaline rush of being on a hunt, even though he would never admit that to Dean. When the two of them were actually on a hunt, everything else faded away, they had a problem to solve, someone to save and something to destroy, exorcise or provide a sense of peace to. There was meaning in it, a sense of purpose. He and Dean had been hunting together long enough that they moved without talking anymore they knew their strengths and weaknesses and protected each other. These lulls in between hunts, Dean's smart ass side came out more, it was his way of dealing with the lack of focus. There had been many, many times when Sam had been tempted to break something on the Impala without Dean knowing just so Dean could fix the car instead of sitting in the room being obnoxious. Unfortunately for that plan, Sam liked keeping his face intact so he tried to tune his brother out as much as possible and focus on other things.

Sam had been trying to figure out a way to make gathering possible jobs go faster, he had been working on building and moderating a website where people could post things they thought might be "Supernatural" in nature. Like most sites it had started out slow, he had contacted Ellen and told her about it. His idea was hunters could post things as well to help keep in touch with each other, give heads ups on new information, divvy up jobs with the general populace posting weird things. In the last few months the site had been picking up traffic and he tended to start his day off looking at that first. There weren't a lot of new posts but one caught his eye. It was a new user and the style of typing and phrasing made it pretty clear in was a kid typing on a cell phone. All it said was " Hlp me, M and D r not real! They r monsters! 7My frnd is gone n I thnk Im next. msg me pls!"

Sam logged on and sent the user a PM " What's going on?" Then set it aside and started looking at news sites. Dean had settled down on the bed and was looking through some local newspapers, Dean didn't like computers for some reason. Sam had tried to get him to use the net but he steadfastly refused for some reason and after awhile Sam had given up, Sam was convinced that Dean's idea of technology like his taste in music was stuck in the 80s. After an hour or so of fruitless searching the tab he had the website on started flashing, looks like the new user had messaged back.

" I don't know, they came home one day and seemed weird, then two nights later I was looking out my window and saw my friend's parents carry him to the car. He wasn't moving, they were just holding him by his wrists. I haven't seen him since. I AM SOO SCARED, more kids are gone now...PLEASE HELP ME! I haven't been home in three days and my "parents" don't seem to care. After I realized more kids were gone I was too scared to go home. "

Sam closed out all the other windows on his computer. " Hey Dean I think we got something. " Dean joined Sam at the table and read the message.

" So what are we thinking? Shapeshifters? " Dean said. He always wanted to jump to conclusions before they had even left the hotel. " Hey what is this anyway? Some "post your freaky life here" site? "

Sam sighed, " No Dean, I made this site to try to get jobs faster, and maybe get tips and leads from other hunters. The job we did a few weeks ago came from here. Anyway, let me see if I can get more details. "

Sam typed back " What do you mean your parents are weird? "

"They just aren't right, they don't care what we eat, or what we do and it's like they're just waiting for something….and, their eyes, something is wrong with their eyes. "

Dean snorted, "Never thought I would see a kid complain that their parents aren't caring about what they eat or are doing. I think that's more suspicious than how the parents are acting. "

Sam started typing again, " What's wrong with their eyes? " He waited anxiously hoping it wasn't going to be that the eyes were all black.

"I know it sounds weird but once when I was spying on them, they didn't see me but I saw them. Mom blinked and her eyes went all black, then she blinked again and it went away. I swear it! "

Sam flung his hands up in disgust. " Demons, why did it have to be demons!?" He pushed the laptop away from him, stood up and paced the room.

" Uh, cause that's what we do, hunt demons. " Dean replied. Sam spun and glared at him.

Dean raised his hands in an attempt to pacify Sam " Look, I know the last couple of times...ok just about every time we've dealt with demons things get a little messy.." Dean started

" A LITTLE MESSY!" Sam screamed. "Do you want the list of how much worse things get? Dean, we know after the last run in that there is some new super demon trying to make a play and that they want to kill 8me, and you…..well you they are just waiting until you hit your expiration date. After Mom, Dad, Jess and everyone else that keeps getting caught in the crossfire part of me just wants to not deal with them anymore. I know, I know, that sounds bad and there are kids that are probably getting hurt right now. It's just…." he trailed off. Things in his life just kept spiraling out of control and it all came pressing in on him. He had lost everything, just like Dean, and he was going to lose Dean too. He wanted so badly to run away from it all but he knew he couldn't. He took a deep breath and looked at his brother. Dean was looking at him with that expression that Dean thought masked everything but Sam saw right through.

" Look Sam," Dean said in a hushed tone. "The last time Ruby was here she told me what hell is, and the point of hell. All the pain and agony is for one purpose, that purpose is burning your humanity away. When you lose that, you become a demon. God knows how Ruby kept some of hers but I know...at least I hope I know..that when my time is up, it's saving people that will help me not turn into one of them. If I can hold onto those memories..that's all that matters. Knowing that I spent every moment I could killing those evil motherfuckers will keep a smile on my face for a long time. "

Instantly Sam's anger evaporated. People always said that Sam was the smart one of the pair, but that's because Dean hid his intelligence behind smart ass remarks, bravado and a devil may care attitude but underneath all that he had a keen intelligence and he didn't miss much, he wasn't "book smart" like Sam, but survival smart. Dean had kept both of them alive and safe since childhood, he had sheltered Sam as much as he could, but in doing so had learned to conceal what he was to not attract too much attention, he hid it so well that sometimes even Sam forgot how smart he was.

"Why didn't you tell me? That was weeks ago. " Sam said, not really hurt about it but trying to get past a moment that threatened to overwhelm them.

" Yeah well, you know me Sammy, all that hellfire and brimstone talk, who needs it when there's hunting to be done. So, where is this kid? " Sam took some deep breaths, settled down and headed back to the table and the laptop.

"Ok, well staying away is probably the best idea. Where are you? Maybe we can help you. " He typed back, belatedly hoping this wasn't some new police sting to arrest pedophiles or something.

"I don't know what you can do..but I am in Starling City...in WA. "

"Ok. Look, I know something about what happened with your parents. Find a church or holy ground stay there. Keep some salt on you, put a ring of it around your bed wherever you sleep. It sounds weird I know but it will help keep you safe. My name is Sam. Keep in touch ok? " Sam replied. He hoped this kid would follow his advice.

" Thanks Sam, I'm Tara. If you come to town let me know. I'll be at St. Michael's Church on 5th Ave. My brother is a priest there. Thank you for believing me. I need to go now. Bye"

Sam looked up at Dean " Well? " Dean turned to look at the door to their room. " Dean, what are you doing? "

" Waiting for Ruby to show up and tell us it's a trap. Give it a minute. " Dean kept staring at the door.

" 9I know it's probably a trap Dean, trust me, but if kids are being hurt we have to do something. " Sam had a feeling that it was more than a trap, that something bigger than just killing him was brewing out there, after all hadn't Ruby said a new power was rising in the West.

Dean turned to look at Sam, he knew that look. Sam had some sort of hunch about this job, even before his visions had kicked in Sam had always seemed to get hunches and intuitions about things. Dean had always been jealous of Sam's ability to read people and get people to open up to him, those were the traits that would have made Sam a star in the courtroom, a rich and happy attorney. Of course now it was far too late for his brother to have anything like that kind of life, even after the hellhounds came for his soul and he was long gone, Dean knew Sam would keep hunting, he would never be able to return to a "normal " life. He hated the fact that the yellow eyed demon had ripped that life away from Sam when he killed Jessica. Before that moment, Dean was hunting because that was the way to stay connected with his Dad who had become so lost and obsessed after their mom had been killed. After Jessica died, it became incredibly personal to him, he had so hoped and wished that Sam could escape this life, could become something more, someone happy, with a wife and kids. It would have justified his whole childhood of keeping Sam safe from harm. Dean had never wanted to see that haunted, lost look in Sam's eyes…..ever. He shook his head to clear his thoughts.

" Yeah ok. Do you think we should check first to see if other kids are missing?" Dean asked

" Well Tara said no one was reporting them so I am not sure if we would find out, if demons are possessing the parents and stealing the kids it's not like they are going to run to the cops and say the kid is gone. Wait, Starling City...I remember reading something odd about that city. Something about a man made earthquake devastating the poor part of town. " Sam started searching on the net. " See here, more than 500 people died in this quake. I guess the rich people were waging some sort of war to save the city or something. Nothing was really clear as to why. Something else too, there's this Hood guy, shoots arrows or something, He appeared about a year and a half ago. Lots of strange things happen there it seems. "

"Well chaos and death does attract demons. How does a person cause a quake anyway?" Dean asked.

"I have no idea, seismic destruction wasn't part of the Bar exam. " Sam replied dryly.

Dean smirked " Well Sam, it sounds a hell of a lot more interesting than hanging around here. Looks like about a 4 day drive. We should probably get started. " Dean got up and started packing. Sam felt a surge of excitement, the beginning of a hunt was always the best part, the anticipation of the fight, the adrenaline, it felt good and it felt wrong. Sometimes he wondered if he wasn't more than half demon already.

**Chapter 3**

Oliver stayed slumped against the tree trying to process what he had just seen and he found the more he replayed it in his mind the less it made sense. He did know one thing though, he was too preoccupied to do any more good here. He had gotten the license plate of the car in front of the house, out of habit he memorized plates, he'd have Felicity run it through the traffic cameras and see if they could figure out where the car went.

He headed back to where he had parked the bike and by some small miracle it was still there. Maybe all the thieves were too spooked to steal tonight. He hopped back on the bike and headed back to the club hoping the drive back would help him focus and clear his head. Traffic was light this time of night in The Glades and his mind drifted, as it often did, back to Shado and the island.

He remembered one day, they were training together, she was helping him with his archery and she started telling him a story about a Chinese god, Houyi, the god of archery. The story went that there were 10 Sun birds and each day a bird would be pulled on a carriage and travel around the world bringing light to the people and the crops. One day the birds tired of this and decided to fly all at the same time, this caused great devastation as the crops burned and withered and the people were scared and dying because the days lasted so long. The God of the Eastern Heaven called to Houyi to come and scare the birds into behaving again by threatening them with his bow and arrow. When Houyi saw what had become of earth and the animals and people he grew angry and instead of scaring the birds, he started shooting them out of the sky. The Emperor saw what was happening and beseeched Houyi to stop before he killed the last one. Houyi came to his senses and that last bird never again diverted from his appointed rounds. The God of the Eastern Heaven was devastated at the loss of the birds as they were his children and so stripped Houyi of his immortality saying that if he cared that much about humans that he was willing to kill all the Sun Birds he could live among them.

At the time Oliver didn't understand the meaning of the story, he thought the God of the Eastern Heaven was overreacting, since returning home though the story seemed to hold more meaning for him. After all, he was attacking people that were acting irresponsibly and destroying his city and it seemed that although in doing so he was saving many lives, it was costing him dearly. His father's list and dying wish that Oliver punish those who in the end he had been working with to destroy the city was very similar to the God requesting Houyi's aid. Oliver remembered how much anger he had felt toward those people on the list when he first arrived and had seen how bad things had gotten in Starling City. Shado had carved Oliver a little figure of an archer on horse, she said it symbolized Houyi and it may help guide him in his aim and maybe even protect him she had even carved a little prayer onto the figure. Eventually Oliver figured out how to make a necklace out of it and during his time on the island had worn it often. Shado had then told him about demons and dark things in Chinese lore as a way to pass the time, once again Oliver had dismissed the stories back then, now however he wasn't so sure. What he had seen that night wasn't normal and he had no reference point where to start to figure out what was going on, other than Shado's stories.

He arrived at the back entrance to the club, pulled the bike next to the back door, typed in the keycode and entered into the club. It was still early for a Saturday night and the club was pretty packed. He could see on the monitors that Thea was serving drinks and mingling with guests, he felt a flash of pride at his sister and how she had grown in the last few months. He walked further into his base of operations and almost tripped over Felicity. She was laying on the ground, flat on her back in obvious pain.

"Felicity! What happened? Are you ok? " He immediately started looking for blood or some other injury.

"Don't touch me! Ow...umm. I'm ok really. Just don't move me." An embarrassed look crossed her face for a brief moment, then the pain returned to her features. He was relieved she was talking and not bleeding but he was concerned as to why she was telling him not to move her.

" Ok, what happened?"

"Well, I was waiting for you, and I got bored and I had already had 4 cups of coffee so I was a little amped up. I had planned on reconfiguring some systems but that took a lot less time than I thought so I figured I would try to occupy my time doing other things. I thought I should clean up the place, what with us practically living here now it was getting a little cluttered and, well, you should know you make lifting those weights over there look a lot easier than it really is. Queen Consolidated insurance covers chiropractors right?. I mean, I took one of those high deductible plans to save some money and, I just thought I should ask " Her train of thought finally ended and he had to choke back on the laughter that was threatening to ruin the moment. He didn't want to embarrass her further.

" Yes I am pretty sure it does, if not, Vigilante Ventures will. Here let me see what I can do." he said

'What they teach you how to align spines along with breaking necks on the island? " She said, then cringed. " Sorry Oliver…" He smiled at her.

"It's ok. Let's just say that learning all those fighting skills, we had to do a lot of rehab too. " He gently helped her roll over which elicited a lot of gasps of pain from her and ran his hands down her spine. "I don't think anything is too out of place. Let me get you some ice and some pain meds. You probably just pulled a muscle. " He found the ice packs and aspirin and brought it to her with some water, he helped her roll back over. He arranged some clothes and bags he had to make a padded area for her, picked her up and they figured out the best way for her to lay that didn't hurt too bad. She placed the ice pack on her back and gasped at the cold, she had taken off her sweater and was wearing just a thin t-shirt so there wasn't a lot between the ice and her skin.

" Thanks. Sorry about all this. " she said.

" Well, it's definitely a change of pace, me having to tend to your injuries." He replied.

She relaxed a bit as the ice started numbing her back. "So what did you find out? "

He paused for a minute as he wasn't sure how to talk about what he had seen. Felicity and Diggle had gotten used to him withholding things from them, they didn't like it but in some measure they understood it, especially when it concerned his past. After the Undertaking though, and all the further secrets about his family had come out he had resolved in his own mind to let them in more. The problem was that this wasn't about the island and he really didn't know what to say.

" I….I'm not really sure." He saw Felicity get that look of frustration laced with sadness when he had in the past refused to talk. " No, it's not about the island. It's just I really don't know. " She cocked her head a bit to the side and said " Well share it, maybe we can figure it out. It's not like I am going to be moving anytime soon. "

"Ok, but I am not sure you're going to believe what I say." he said.

She looked directly at him " Oliver, I work for a man that is worth ridiculous amounts of money, who in all rights should be running a major corporation, but instead he spends his nights in the basement of a night club with his IT genius friend and a bodyguard , leading a double life that includes tracking down bad guys from a list his dead father gave him, then he points arrows of all things at these people and convinces them to give money back to the people they stole it from. Oh and did I mention he was presumed dead for 5 years? Give it your best shot."

" Well when you put it that way. " he smiled at her and they started to laugh, until a shot of pain in her back cut through the ice. " Alright then. " He then proceeded to tell her the whole story, leaving no detail out. At the end of it she looked at him and started trying to get up.

" Woah woah!. You don't want to make it worse. What do you need? " He gently pushed her back down onto the ground.

"Well you need license plate info. I didn't find any missing kids reports but it takes awhile for me to get all the info from the traffic cams. I can't do any of that from here. " She got a determined look on her face.

" Well can you access any of that from your laptop? " he asked.

": I can but since I am here I left that at home so either you go to my house and get the laptop or help me get to the computers. " She looked at him with a fierce challenge in her eyes.

" How about you just walk me through what to do? It can't be that hard right? " As soon as he said it he knew that was the worst thing to have said to her. One of her eyebrows shot up and her eyes got a cold glint in them. "Oliver, let me explain this in a way you'll understand. Would you let me shoot your bow without any training whatsoever? I mean it's so easy right, you just point it at something and let go of that string. No need to account for wind, for angles, for trajectories, no need to lead your target or any of the other millions of calculations your brain makes when you are aiming at a moving target. " She snapped out in a harsh voice.

" No of course not, but I mean it's…" he stopped himself.

" It's what ? Do go on. " Somehow she growled that out. He met her fierce gaze and in his mind her face molded with Shado's when he first made fun of archery.

"It's your area of expertise Felicity. I should not have implied that it was either easy or something I could do with no prior knowledge or training. Perhaps in the future you could start showing me some of what you do so I have a greater understanding of what's involved. If you are ok here I can go get your laptop from home if you would like. " He said, in a respectful and humble tone of voice, she was right. He had been taking what she did for granted. Felicity's face became a study in how many emotions a person can show in a short amount of time, shock flew across her face, then came a bit of suspicion as if she thought he was making fun of her, following that pride took over then came the gratitude and surprise. Gratitude that someone she respected was acknowledging her skills and surprise that Oliver had expressed that acknowledgement in such a respectful way, that he had been humble enough to admit she was as accomplished if not more10 in some way than he was.

"Thank you Oliver, that...that means a lot. " She gave him a full powered smile and then looked at the computer array. "Look, I really only need the center computer monitor and it's tower. If you can help me move closer to the desk we can move them to the floor and I should be ok to type. We can turn the other monitors around on the desk in case I need to move things to the other screens. "

He walked to the desk in a few quick steps, arranged things as she instructed and sat down to wait for her to work her magic. Her fingers flew across the keyboard and she asked " What was that plate number again and what was the address you were at when you saw the car? Which direction did they drive off? " He gave her all the information and was again amazed at the speed and fluidity that Felicity navigated her way through countless screens, passwords and systems. She had been right, it would have been foolish of him to have her try to walk him through this. Felicity was working off some sort of technological instinct, it was like when he walked into a dangerous situation. She wasn't so much as thinking as she was responding, reacting and interacting immediately to whatever appeared on her screen. Hacking into systems, building computers, navigating the immense universe that was the internet was as much a part of her as his fighting skills and bow and arrow had become of him. Within a matter of 15-20 minutes she had a map of the city up showing him the route of the vehicle she had pieced together using traffic cam footage and some sort of software that compared images of plates to find the one she needed.

"Ok, I can get you within a 3 block radius of where they finally ended up. Sorry, that's the best I can do. The cameras around this part of The Glades are pretty sparse these days. " she said.

"Felicity, that's perfect! It's a lot more than I would have even hoped for. I can cover 3 blocks pretty fast, especially if Dig comes with me. " he replied.

" Well don't get too excited. Look where it is. " He looked at the screen as the map zoomed into the area she was referring to. It was the area hardest hit by the quake, dozens of damaged buildings, inaccessible roads, lots of warehouses with multiple entrances and exits and who knew how many basements. A perfect place to hide large amounts of people, no one went there anymore, and those who did minded their own business or ended up dead. He felt a sinking feeling in his stomach, someone was either setting up an ambush for someone or planning something incredibly horrific, either way it involved children and some…..some being or thing that was a threat to his city; and that was not acceptable.

" Hey, can you scroll back over the last two weeks and see if you can spot any other cars with children in them coming here, if so how many. Also is there a way to set up some sort of alert or something on the traffic cams around those to let us know when people drive up to that spot? " he asked, his brain was working quickly, he needed more information before he could strike and he knew time was running out.

" Well, I can narrow it down to some of the least traveled routes or else it will be too much information to go through. Can you narrow it down any more for me? " he reached into his pocket and grabbed the list of addresses Roy had given him.

" Yeah I think so, these are all the addresses of the children Roy knows for sure have gone missing. Maybe narrow it down to routes most likely to be traveled from these areas to that spot. It's a long shot but it's something. " She shifted a bit, winced in pain and took the list.

11"I'll get right on it boss. " She settled down and got started. He looked at her for a few minutes, trying to phrase things carefully.

"Felicity, how about we get you home? There's no need for you to be laying here on the floor working when you could do this from somewhere more comfortable. I know you're as anxious as I am to help these kids but let's make sure you don't get hurt worse in the process. " he hoped she wouldn't take what he was saying as some sort of dismissal of her. She stopped typing and looked at him.

"You're probably right." She tried to get up, hissed with the pain and looked awkwardly at him. He saw her trying to phrase her next statement in some sort of way that wouldn't embarrass her. He smiled.

"Look give me the keys to your car, I'll pull it up to the back, carry you out and drive you home. Let me call Dig and see if he can meet me at your place and bring me back. We'll get you home and set up with a few things and call it a night ok? " she gave him a grateful smile.

Fortunately Diggle was free to pick Oliver up so they got her all situated in the car and headed to her house. Oliver had never been to Felicity's place, she lived on the second floor of a fairly nice condo complex. She refused to have Oliver carry her past building security to her place and made him drive around the back to the tenant elevator. "That's all I need is people thinking that I got drunk on a date with you and you had to carry me home and to bed. " were her exact words. Oliver had to agree with her on that one. It was bad enough people thought her promotion at work was due to some illicit affair, he felt bad that she had to deal with the whispers and gossip but she had never seemed to be bothered by it. He wondered if in her chosen field people thought she had excelled because of her looks, not her skills. He was surprised at how that thought angered him.

The elevator ride was quick, as it slowed to a halt Felicity motioned Oliver to put her down. "What now?" he asked.

'Let me look out and see if anyone is in the hall." Perhaps she was being too paranoid he thought.

" OK all clear, I think I can walk to my door from here. Just brace me a bit please. " Oliver had pulled muscles in his back before and he was astonished that she managed to make it 4 doors down to her unit while keeping a relatively straight face. Fortunately no one came into the hallway, she unlocked her door and took two steps into the room and collapsed against the wall in pain. He caught her just before she hit the floor. " I got you, relax. Where'd you learn to keep that straight of a face while in that much pain? " he asked.

"Look at who I work with, I figured if you could walk around with bullet wounds, stab wounds and who knows how many broken ribs I could go a few steps with a messed up muscle in my back. " She said breathlessly, shaking a bit from the pain. He took a quick look at her. She needed some stronger pain killers or a sedative. Fortunately he had tucked some herbs from the island in his jacket pocket when they left. Once again she had surprised him, some day he hoped to deserve the amount of respect she gave him. He laid her carefully down on the couch and took a quick look around, her house was neat but not obsessively clean, she had several books on computers and programs on a bookshelf, minimal but well appointed furniture in the living room. The kitchen looked well stocked and had copper bottom pots and pans dangling from hooks in the ceiling, some photos and artwork were scattered about, it looked homey. The Queen mansion never felt homey. He found that after he had returned from the island where he, Shado and Slade had spent much of their time in plane wreckage and caves, much closer quarters than he had g12rown up in, he could never fully relax in the huge spaces, open floor plans and vaulted ceilings that abounded in his family home. Maybe some day he could somehow justify getting his own place, after all not that many people stayed at the mansion anymore, whenever he thought about it though it seemed like moving out would break that last tenuous link he had with his family.

" OK so what do you need ? " he asked.

"A massage and a margarita" she muttered under her breath not thinking Oliver could hear her. "My laptop which is in my bedroom and…." she trailed off.

" Felicity?"

" Well, it's just I haven't done laundry, and my room is kind of cluttered and…" she looked away from him.

" I will close my eyes, walk directly to your laptop, pick it up and walk right back out. Promise. " He told her hoping to make her laugh. She smiled a bit anxiously and shrugged, realizing that she couldn't really do much to stop Oliver from going into her room.

He turned and walked down the hallway and found the door to her room, with her nervousness he was expecting to see women's clothes strewn everywhere and maybe some other embarrassing things but he should have known better. He opened the door to her room and stopped, every single wall was covered with technological equipment, most of which he didn't really know what it was. She had a desk to one side that had 4 no wait, 5 monitors on it seemingly processing all on their own, picture, numbers, newspaper articles etc were all flying by at an insane rate. There were racks to either side that held what he could only guess were servers of some sort. Her queen sized bed was tucked into a corner, the covers looked like they had never been touched. There were no clothes laying about, he saw them all stacked in a pile neatly folded. Puzzled she had things one normally hung in closets on the floor he opened the closet door, which revealed more servers, hard drives and monitors. He finally spotted the laptop, looking for all the world like a child's toy in the midst of all this technological grandness, picked it up and walked back out to the living room.

Felicity looked at him, there was some obscure sort of pain in her eyes, like she was waiting for him to berate or make fun of her room or somehow admonish her that she should be doing better things with her time. That's when it hit him, his prior idle stray thought of men in her field dismissing her interests and skills was indeed a reality. She was the exception to the rule, just like Shado had once said her father had wanted a son, he realized that in Felicity's life her peers or maybe even her family had tried to turn her away from her passions and turn her into something she wasn't. He knew the next thing he said would be probably one of the most important things he would ever say in his life, the nature of his and Felicity's relationship was hanging in the balance.

"Why do you need all that equipment? It's very impressive. How do you keep track of everything? " he asked. It was almost painful how vulnerable she looked at that moment. She had been so afraid that he would be dismissive of her, even if he hadn't been genuinely curious as to what she was doing with all that gear he would have said the same thing. He of all people, should be the last one to demean someone's life choices and interests. At least she had put her college education to good use.

She took the laptop from him and powered it on. "Well, to be honest there didn't used to be so much but since I j13oined up with you I've expanded things a bit. Remember when I told you I could log in remotely from here into the systems there? " He nodded at her as he gathered a pot up and poured some water into it, preparing to make some tea. "Well that's not exactly accurate. Actually, I am logging in remotely to the system when we're at the club. The system I built for you, it's here Oliver, not there. "

"I don't understand. " He told her.

"Well, that first night I was there, when you were shot and bleeding all over my car. Hey does that herbal stuff clean upholstery? I have yet to get those stains out. Anyway, I realized that you needed a better set -up than what you had and I started planning out what you would need. Do you really think I hack into the FBI database using the two hard drives I have there not to mention over a non secure internet connection? I'm good, but not that good. So when I finally made it home I started designing what I would need. Without getting too technical on you I use the club as a remote site so I can bounce my IP address all over the place but I have an encrypted, secure line here. So while my IP address is bouncing all over the place I am accessing a secure line here and getting you information. After that it was just a matter of borrowing a few things from Queen Consolidated, they were just sitting in storage . Oliver I swear. I checked, they had been part of an extra shipment we got that no one did anything with. It's not like I am stealing from the company. I also figured that if anyone ever tracked down the club and destroyed it...for some reason, everything would be safe here. I mean, most people wouldn't think someone was running a system that does what I do out of a condo right? At least until they looked at my power bill. " She turned her head and started typing on her laptop. He was stunned, he turned the burner to high, set the pot with water on top and walked over to the couch.

" So you're telling me that months ago, before you even fully agreed to come on board you thought this all out? "

" Well, I don't do anything halfway. Remember, I came on to find Walter, I had a rough idea of the resources I would need to do that. The rest was just a logical thought process, really. " She said as she focused on the screen and pushed her glasses back up on her nose. She was fully engulfed in her world of computers and commands at this point, he shook his head and once again realized how he kept underestimating her, he was going to have to stop doing that. The water had started boiling, he found a tea ball and put some of the herbs in it, found a mug, put the water and the tea ball in the mug and set it to steep.

"Is that the stuff that you drink every time you get poisoned or drugged? I don't think I need anything that serious. " She asked idly, the scent of the herbs was drifting through the house.

"No, this is something that will kill the pain and help you relax. It's a bit bitter though, do you have any honey? It helps. "

" Yeah, cabinet to the right of the stove, 2nd shelf, 3rd bottle to the right. " He reached up and got it, mixed in some honey and put the mug next to her arm on the coffee table.. He texted Diggle that he could come pick him up, Diggle replied "Been outside for 10 mins. Took you long enough. " Oliver smiled as he realized that somehow these two people seemed to know him better than he knew himself.

"Ok, here's the tea. Diggle is here, I will give you a choice. You really shouldn't be alone as it will be pretty hard to move, I can stay here or if you know someone that can come over and help I'll wait 14until they get here. " He knew she would probably be a bit uneasy having him sleep over.

"Um, I have a friend in the building. Let me call her, you don't have to stay. If she says she will be over she will be. " Oliver nodded and stepped away to let her call her friend. Felicity hung up the phone and said her friend would be over in a few minutes.

He chose to wait anyway for one, he was sure she would forget about the tea steeping and if overdone those herbs tasted like dirt mixed with tar and for another he wanted to spend a few more minutes in her homey place. He settled on the recliner and closed his eyes, trying to collect his thoughts. He heard a soft knock at the door, Felicity instinctively went to get up and immediately sank back on the couch. He motioned her to relax, grabbed the herbs out of the mug as they had been steeping long enough and opened the door. A young women stood on the other side and she had a bag with some ice packs sticking out of it in one hand and some Tiger Balm in the other.

" Oh hello. I'm Tonya. " She awkwardly tried to shake his hand.

"It's ok, I'm just leaving. I'm …"

" You're Oliver Queen I know, I know. " Tonya gave him a piercing look as if trying to get him to confess some hideous misdoing. He put on his most charming smile.

" Yes, I am. I was going over reports for the company. I had tried to send her home earlier but she seems to think I can't do anything in the office on my own. She was printing out something for me, the printer ran out of paper. She went to pick up a whole case of paper and seems to have put her back out. There was no one else in the office and I was certainly not going to make her drive home herself in that condition. So here I am, leaving, now that a caring friend has shown up to help. " Tonya tried to keep the disapproving look on her face but it cracked under the weight of his smile, the story and the compliment. Ironically, it was the one skill he didn't learn on the island that in some ways was the most important skill in his life now. How to lie convincingly, especially to women. That one he had down by the time he was 13. " Thank you for coming on such short notice and so late Tonya. It looks like Felicity will be in good hands. " he stepped aside so Tonya could walk in. He looked back into the living room, "Remember to drink that tea and don't worry about that other project. We can do it tomorrow. Get some rest. I'll make an appointment for you at a chiropractor on Monday if you are still in pain. I do know how to do that Ms. Smoak. Thank you for all your assistance tonight. " He smiled at Felicity who smiled back and closed her laptop, he knew that as soon as her friend left or fell asleep she would be on it all night. What she didn't know was that tea would knock an elephant out, she needed rest right now not spending all night trying to hunt down some new danger in Starling City. He waved goodbye and walked towards the elevator, rode it down to the parking lot and met Diggle. He shook his head at Diggle who had shot him a questioning look. "She's fine. Look let me think for a bit, then I'll fill you in ok? " Diggle nodded, opened the door to the car for him, closed it, got in the drivers seat and then they headed back to the mansion. Oliver closed his eyes, leaned back and wondered just exactly what this new danger was.

**CHAPTER 4 **

It was the second night of the 4 day drive and it was Sam's turn to drive. They had only stopped once to sleep for a few hours at a cheap motel. The fact that there could be kids involved was weighing on both their minds. Dean was asleep so Sam, thankfully got a rest from 80s music. He had earphones in hooked up to his Mp3 player and currently that amazing scream by Jared Leto in " Night of the Hunter" was keeping him company.

"Skinned her alive, ripped her apart

Scattered her ashes, buried her heart

Rise up above it, high up above it and see

Pray to your God, open your heart

Whatever you do, don't be afraid of the dark

Cover your eyes, the devil's inside

One night of the hunter

One day I will get revenge

One night to remember

One day it'll all just end,"

This song and they way in which Jared sung it, just wrenched his emotions every time. He was hoping he could rise above it and see but lately all he saw was emptiness and pain. He shook his head as his eyes started to blur with tears. Getting all choked up wouldn't help those kids and it wouldn't help him. Sam was hoping the next stop had internet access as he wanted to check his site out and see if Tara had sent any other messages. He figured if they struck out at the rest stop he would call Ellen and have her log in as him and see if there was anything waiting for him. They had called Ellen from the road and asked if anyone had noticed anything in the WA area, demonic omens or the like and she said she hadn't heard but she would keep her eyes and ears open, Bobby had said the same thing right after saying that they were being damn fool idiots for going after this with no backup or actual knowledge. Sam had to agree but he couldn't ignore his intuition which was screaming at him that he needed to stop whatever was going on. He was starting to get a cramp in his leg from driving and he needed to move a bit. A sign flashed by stating there was a truck stop in another 10 miles, he pressed down the gas pedal trying to get there just a little bit faster.

He pulled into the truck stop, it looked pretty busy. It was late and a lot of truckers had pulled off to get a few hours of sleep in their cabs or maybe catch a shower, this stop was out in the middle of nowhere but it was pretty large, with truck washes, room rentals, showers and a 24 hour restaurant. Sam pulled up to a pump and parked, he looked at Dean debating if he should wake him. He figured if Dean didn't wake up because the Impala had stopped moving he was probably pretty tired. Sam got out of the car and walked inside to get some gas, coffee, use the bathroom and stretch his legs a bit, he smiled at the cashier as he paid for his gas and coffee and headed to the restroom. He turned the corner to go inside and heard a voice behind him.

"Sam, what do you think you're doing?"

15" Hi Ruby. I was wondering when you were going to show up. Right now I am going to go use the restroom, then I am going to gas up the car, get my coffee and start driving again. Is that alright with you? " He said without even turning around. He pushed open the door to the restroom and went in, thankfully Ruby chose not to follow him although he knew she was waiting just outside. He finished up and opened the door.

" Leave being a smart ass to Dean, he's better at it. " She looked as she always did, dressed in a brown leather jacket, jeans, a knife showing on her belt and her blonde hair pulled slightly out of her face. Sam never knew what to think of her, plus he wondered about that body she was in. Demons don't have their own body, she was possessing someone, in the normal scheme of things he would tie Ruby to a chair in the middle of a King Soloman's seal and send her back to hell freeing whoever she was borrowing but unfortunately things had changed. Ruby was a demon, but a demon who wanted to help him. He still wasn't sure he could trust her but so far she hadn't been wrong in anything she said.

" Ok Ruby, out with it. What horrible mess are we getting ourselves this time? " he decided to just resign himself to the situation. Whatever he thought of demons, Ruby had stuck her neck out for them a couple of times, although he couldn't quite bring himself to be gracious to her at least he could try to be polite.

" Well, at least you're starting to come around and listen. " she said. She looked harried, frustrated and out of sorts even for her. Sam couldn't even begin to imagine the things she was having to do to stay off the radar so other demons didn't kill her for betraying them, unless of course she was part of the plan to get Sam to trust a demon that would betray him in the end. Sam stopped that line of thought before his paranoia became even further developed.

'"Look Dean is sleeping in the car and we have a long way to go. What's up?"

" Why are you both in so much of a hurry to get yourselves killed? OK, can we sit down at least? If Dean wakes up he'll just come in, it'll save you having to repeat all this anyway. " she looked tired, and Sam was exhausted. He motioned to a booth in the restaurant portion of the truck stop. The one waitress on shift looked hopefully at him, poor woman probably got no tips this time of night. Sam motioned her over and Ruby ordered a coffee, he figured what the hell and ordered a sandwich. He could always eat it later or give it to Dean. Then he looked pointedly at Ruby, she took the hint.

"Ok Sam. You already know that they are trying to set you up so I won't repeat the obvious but it's not just getting you she wants. "

"She, as in Lillith" he said.

"Yeah, her. " Ruby shivered a bit when she replied. He knew nothing about this Lillith yet but if she scared Ruby he was pretty damn sure he wouldn't like what he found out. Ruby took a breath to calm herself and continued.

"Remember the spell I offered to do last time to get rid of all the demons around the cop station. This time you may really have no choice and so the offer still stands whether or not you have issues sacrificing a virgin. Lillith wants more demons at her beck and call. Apparently the ones you guys set free at the Hell Gate aren't enough for her. She has always been fond of mass destruction and such, not that she can't be subtle and strategic. She's the oldest one of us Sam, I want you to think16 about that as you listen to me. That earthquake in Starling City created a huge amount of anger, sadness, pain, rage, all those things demons love and it's much worse than in natural disasters. This was an act of destruction that astonished even people like me, the scary part is it was thwarted, there was another earthquake device that someone stopped. If they hadn't it would have caused 2-3 times the amount of damage and death. This was perpetrated on an innocent population who had no prior knowledge, it was done by people so selfish and twisted that they thought killing all those people was the only way to save the city, it was done out of revenge. By most demonic standards it was a work of art actually, of course none of us actually had a hand in it. Humans do more damage than most demons ever could, that whole free will option.

Anyway the fallout from all this is that the people there, their hate and anger are running out of control. They hate the people that did this to them, they want to take revenge, they want "justice" for their loved ones that died. They have turned on each other, whole segments of the population are at war with each other. This makes them incredibly easy to be possessed by demons and powerful demons at that and that is what Lillith needs and wants. " Ruby stopped and looked directly at him, the force of her gaze mesmerized him because it was so serious and full of fear.

" Lillith wants to create a gate to hell there. That's why she's taking children, when she opens that gate all the demons that escape will have a ready made, easily accessible population to possess and they will all owe allegiance to Lillith for freeing them. She's going to sacrifice the children and open a gate to hell that cannot be closed by anyone but her. You have to stop her. " Sam slowly lowered his cup of coffee to the table, he didn't trust his shaking hand to not spill the hot liquid all over him.

"How? I mean she's the oldest of you. Will the Colt work?" he asked in a stunned voice.

"Well here's where you get a little lucky, she's not there yet. The ritual can't take place for another 6 days, things have to align, you know how that works. So if you can get there, stop it in the next 6 days and get the hell out of there you may survive. If not, your chances are pretty damn slim. Unless we do that spell, it may work on her I am not sure but it's the only other option you would have.. The Colt is 50/50 at best, she would probably just stop the bullet like that other demon did. " Ruby slugged down the rest of her coffee and got ready to stand up, just then Dean showed up.

" Well looks like my timing was a bit off but I knew you were going to show up. Hi Ruby, get the hell away from Sam."

" Dean, wait. " Sam started, Dean had an even stronger distrust of Ruby and probably wouldn't able to even be civil to her anytime soon. "Look she was telling me about the job. You have to listen to her. Please. " Dean looked at him then back at Ruby.

"I am certainly not going to repeat all that. Sam can fill you in on the details but let me dumb it down for you Dean. Lillith, sacrifice kids, open gate to hell, apocalypse, 6 days. Did that go by too fast for you? " Sam tried to hide his smile, one thing to be said for Ruby, she could certainly put his brother in his place faster than anyone else ever had.

" No, I think I got it thanks. " Even though the remark was meant to sound harsh it lost much of it's bite because Dean's face had paled and he sat down slowly beside Sam.

Sam saw Dean open his mouth as if to say something, but he closed it again and just put his face in his hands and sat there. Ruby looked at the two of them, shook her head and said

" Look, you guys need time to process all of this. There is someone there that may be able to help you. "

" Another hunter?" Dean asked raising his face out of his hands and looking hopeful.

"No, he's, well he's the guy that tried to stop the earthquake. I don't know much about him, he's protected somehow. All I know is that he's new on the scene and is not who he seems to be. I'll try to find out more. I'll catch up with you in a few days maybe I can help you once you're there. " She got up and walked out.

" Huh, who do you think she's talking about?" Dean asked. Sam looked at his brother.

" Remember who I told you about that was weird in that city?"

"That Hood guy that shoots arrows? Really? Against demons? C'mon she can't be serious!"

" Well Dean, we use shotgun shells filled with rock salt, holy water and blessed bullets that shoot out of a gun that was fixed by a demon. Explain to me how arrows are somehow useless weapons." Sam said. Dean started to speak, closed his mouth, shook his head and just threw up his hands.

"Well, I guess we can dip the arrows in holy water or something. Who knows maybe he knows some secret demon killing herb he found on a deserted island that no one knows about. Come on, let's go. " The two of them stood up, Dean left a generous tip for the lone waitress. They walked outside, filled up the tank of the Impala and drove off, both of them thinking that maybe, just maybe this time they wouldn't be coming back.

**CHAPTER 5**

Oliver walked into the Queen mansion, he debated going back and training a bit under the club but figured he should try to sleep. It was getting easier and easier to sleep, the nightmares were lessening and he had finally adjusted to soft beds and pillows again. For the first few months of his return he ended up sleeping on the floor of his room because he couldn't get used to sleeping in a bed, plus it made him feel vulnerable since it slowed his movements.

He decided to wait to do any recon until Felicity was back up and running and could hopefully narrow things down a bit more, covering all that area without someone watching his back remotely wasn't something he wanted to tackle, especially after what he had seen. He still hadn't told Diggle, mainly because he wasn't sure what it was that he actually saw. He undressed and got into bed, still restless , maybe he should make some of that tea he gave Felicity for himself. Of course the last time he had that tea he had slept for 14 hours straight and he couldn't afford to lose that much time. He started working on some calming rituals he had devised since he had returned from the island, part of it was to work on controlling his anger and part of it was so he could sleep.

He had calmed himself enough to be just at the edge of sleep when his phone went off, he restrained himself from throwing it into the wall and looked at the text. It was Felicity "Nice try with the tea, too busy to sleep, narrowed it down to two blocks, click the link for a map. Going to bed now. " He started to put the phone down without clicking the link, he could go tomorrow, during the day, less chance of any nasty surprises, it was safer. He closed his eyes and sighed, who the hell was he kidding and damn Felicity for sending that, he clicked the link and looked at the map.

She had narrowed it down and some of the nastier areas were not included, he hoped that she was right because this he and Dig could handle a bit better. If he left now he could suit up and be there within 45 mins, he looked at the clock it said 130 am, Felicity was out of commission and if he called Dig again he was sure there would be a lecture or at least several disapproving looks. If he stuck to the rooftops that would lessen the chance of him being seen by anyone, his heart rate picked up in anticipation. He may as well admit to himself that he wasn't going to get any sleep anyway and do something useful, he doubted those kids were sleeping.

He got up out of bed, got dressed, snagged a car from the garage and headed to the club. When he got there he loaded up the computers and saw that Felicity had stored a file with indications of where the most vehicle traffic had been in and out of the area. He certainly wasn't going to try to cover the whole area tonight, even though it was only two blocks there were a lot of buildings and most of those had interior rooms with no windows so would take awhile to canvas through. He suited up, double checked his quiver of arrows and headed out into the night. He picked two or three of the most obvious buildings in a fit of optimism that maybe these bad guys were lazy or overly bold and felt like making his life easy.

He parked the car about a block away from one of the buildings in a parking garage that seemed semi secure. He had made sure to grab one of the lower end cars from the Queen garage and ended up with a Mazda which would hopefully attract less attention than the BMW or Mercedes. He had the hood, bow, greasepaint for his face stashed in a duffle bag and he threw on some sweats over the hood outfit. He walked out of the parking garage and checked the area. No one was around so he found a roof access point, climbed up to the roof of the nearest building, finished suiting up and starting jumping gaps between the buildings to get to his objective. As he cleared the second gap he peered over the edge into the alley below, he had heard some voices and wanted to scope things out a bit.

"This is getting tedious. Having to keep all these kids alive and quiet. This a big risk she is running. " the male below him said to his companion.

" Watch your tongue or you may not have it when she gets here. Since when are kids too much for you to handle hmm? We have 3 more days of this and then we get to take part in all that delicious chaos and destruction. It's worth a little tediousness. Besides, all this lead up time makes killing them that much more enjoyable. "

Oliver clenched his fist, the two below him started walking back down the alley he decided to follow them along the roofs and see if he could hear more details. The taller one stopped.

"Do you feel that? Someone is watching us. " He said as he started looking back down the alley one, then he looked up. Oliver ducked down as fast as he could and hoped it had been fast enough.

"Bah, probably another homeless bum or mugger. You're overly paranoid. The Winchesters aren't in town yet. no other hunter is on to us. What are you worried about? " The shorter one retorted. "Let's just get this patrol done so we can get back inside. It's someone else's turn to play watchman." Oliver waited until he heard the footsteps disappear and then waited another two minutes in case one was waiting to see if someone did show up. He slowly peered over the edge and saw that they were indeed gone. Great, he thought to himself, not only are these guys somehow capable of knocking someone out by just touching their forehead they also have incredibly sharp senses and he had a deadline. This just kept getting better and better. He also wondered who these Winchesters were that they seemed afraid of. Oliver was getting the sinking feeling that his city and those kids were being used as a trap, he didn't like that idea at all. He knew which way the footsteps had faded off into and decided to push a bit further into the maze, but he was definitely staying on rooftops.

As he worked his way closer to where he thought the other two had gone, three more people came out of a door. Well, at least he knew where they were holed up now. The three split into separate paths around the perimeter of the building and one of them looked up to the roof, flexed his legs and hopped right onto the top of the roof. Fortunately, Oliver was on the opposite side of the alley and he decided he had better stay right there if he was going to get a chance to help those kids. These guys were definitely not normal, he started wondering if they were some sort of super soldier or a group like the League of Assassins, but even the best people in the League couldn't jump like that. Deciding that discretion would probably be the wiser path tonight and since he found the building where they were working out of Oliver slowly worked his way back to where he had stashed his duffle, pulled the sweats back on and made it back to his car. He definitely would need back up and Felicity on the computers helping him to pull this off. It tore at him to leave those kids but going in there blind would only get him killed. As he processed that thought, the next thought that hit him was how was he going to explain all this to Diggle and Felicity tomorrow. They already thought he was somewhat crazy as it was. He shook his head, well hopefully they would at least entertain the notion of what he was saying enough to help him.

He headed back to the mansion, set his alarm for 6 am and started to settle back into sleep. Tomorrow was going to be a very long day.

The obnoxious clanging of the alarm woke him from a nightmare about the freighter. Unlike most people Oliver actually appreciated his alarm clock, sleep was very often of little rest or comfort to him. He rolled out of bed, did a short workout, got dressed and headed downstairs.

"Hey Oli!" Thea greeted him.

"Hello Thea. Good Morning!" He was surprised to see her, she had been staying most nights at Roy's. Oliver would feel better if she brought him here where it was safer but maybe Thea, like him, found smaller quarters more relaxing. It's not like there were a lot of happy memories in the Queen Mansion over the last few years. "What are up to today? "

"I took the day off from the club. Roy and I are going to go on a day trip, get the hell out of this city. Go see some trees and relax. " She replied. "How about you?"

" Well, Verdant has been doing so well, thanks to you of course, I thought I would scout some places for another club in The Glades. At least the clubs bring money and jobs to that part of town." That would cover him if someone saw him lurking around that area today. Plus he had been thinking a second base of operations wouldn't be a bad idea anyway.

" Really!? Can I manage that one too? " Thea had been really enjoying working, it seemed to get her mind off the recent events and she seemed much more stable. Oliver smiled at her.

"Well I was thinking maybe we could promote someone to that position. You can be a manager over them but it's hard managing two places at the same time. Know anyone that would be interested?" " He expected her to say Roy but she surprised him.

"There's Angela, she pretty much taught me everything about running Verdant. Tommy had hired her as an assistant, then after….well after what happened and I took over she helped me. I would have destroyed the club if it hadn't been for her. I'll talk to her about it. Thanks Oli! That would be so exciting! " Thea reached up and hugged him and headed out the door. Oliver shook his head and followed behind her.

He had been debating toning down what he told Diggle and Felicity about the events with the kids but he knew those two would sniff that out within a matter of seconds. At least he had a name, Winchesters, and those things seemed scared of them whoever they were. He wasn't sure how that information would come in handy but it was a start. Pulling up to the club he saw Diggle arrive and figured he should probably call and check on Felicity before Diggle asked him how she was, he dialed her number and hoped it wasn't too early. He really didn't want to wake her.

" Hello Oliver. " She said as she picked up on the second ring.

"Hello Felicity. How's the back? "

" It hurts , but I can move a bit better. I did drink some of that tea after I texted you, it helped a lot. Thank you. Do you need me to come down? " He knew if he said yes she'd drag herself in even if she couldn't move her legs.

" No, since I now know you can work at home doing this just as easily as being here I want you to stay there but log in. I may need you to search some information. Let me call you back after Diggle and I get inside ok? "

" Are you sure? I mean I can move now…"

" Felicity, there is no reason right now for you to be sitting in a chair when you can be more comfortable on your couch or bed doing what I need. Look, I appreciate that you want to be here but really, we are ok right now. I'd feel horrible if you hurt yourself worse because you came here. Please, for me Felicity, just stay there and I'll set up the webchat. It will be just like you are here. " Why he got such devotion from her he had no idea.

" Ok Oli, I'll have everything up and running in about 15 mins. " She replied and hung up. Sighing with relief at handling that minor crisis he turned and faced Diggle. Diggle had on his most impassive, poker face, which Oliver had learned meant he was getting impatient with not knowing what was going on.

" Let's walk and talk. First off, Felicity is staying home, her back is still sore and she can log in from there and research things if needed. I promised her I would set up the webchat or she probably would be driving here right now. One of us will have to take her to a chiropractor on Monday most likely. "

"I'll do it. " Diggle volunteered. "You taking her would raise some eyebrows for sure. " Diggle fell into step beside Oliver as they headed into their home away from home. "So, do I get to know what's going on now? I heard something from some contacts in The Glades that weird things are happening with kids. What's going on?" Well there went any chance of toning things down, Diggle's sources had probably already mentioned some of things that Roy had.

"Dig, ok just hear me out. This is going to sound a bit strange and I don't know what to make of this. I promise I am not holding anything back either, I get the feeling that we may be a bit out of our depth here so I want to have both you and Felicity completely on board with this one. Let me just get this web chat up and I'll fill both of you in. " Dig nodded at Oliver, temporarily satisfied. Oliver took a deep breath, somehow, even though they had only known each other for a short amount of time it was like Dig always knew exactly what Oliver was thinking and he found that pretty disturbing sometimes.

He made it to the computers, set up the web chat, got Felicity online and then repeated the events of the past night.

"Wait...they're going to kill all those kids three days from now?" Felicity blurted in a sickened tone.

"That's what they said, I have no idea why but it sounds like it's an opening act for something evil. " Oliver replied. He glanced at Diggle who had slowly sat down on the floor while Oliver had told his story. Dig's eyes had gone wide with shock, then narrowed into a dangerous glare. That was a look Oliver had only seen when he talked about his brother's killer.

"Dig?"

" Ok, you said these guys seemed like high level pros but how they talk, it sounds like they are going to be participating in it, so they are probably not hired guns but converts to whoever this "she " is. " He stopped and Oliver could see he was dredging up something from a time Diggle would have preferred to forget. " You said it looked like the one guy chanted something and the kid went limp and then the eyes went all black? "

" Yes but that could have just been the lighting…." Diggle looked at him.

"Oliver, I have seen you shoot men who were running in and out of street lights at night while you were dodging bullets. You don't get fooled by lighting tricks. " He stared Oliver in the eyes, wanting the truth.

" Ok, yes the eyes went all black, no whites, then back to normal. Then one jumped all the way to a roof with no climbing involved. I don't think they are normal people. " Speaking it Oliver realized he had been trying to deny it but Diggle wouldn't give him that comfort. Diggle's gaze shifted and he shivered.

" Dig? "

"When I was overseas, the locals talked about spirits that possessed people. We all chalked it up to poor people folklore but they said that one way you could tell was when their eyes turned completely black. My unit and I were investigating an incident, there were some pretty grisly killings happening, even for wartime, and the local cops were all long gone. We were supposed to be "peacekeepers" right so we got tagged to investigate the killings We tracked him down to an isolated house at the edge of the town. We surrounded the house and I went through the door first. There he was, covered in blood and laughing about it. There were all these symbols written in blood on the walls and he was chanting in some language I had never heard.

We opened fire on him and he just stood there, laughing. The bullets hit him but there was no blood and he didn't even move, there were 5 of us firing full auto and nothing mattered. We stopped firing and he looked at us and said "Is it my turn now? " He blinked and his eyes turned all black. Then he lifted his hands and we all went hurtling into the walls and the bullet holes closed up, he held us there by some sort of force. One of the guys started bleeding from a cut in his throat that just appeared. Let me tell you at that point I think all of us just started praying to make it out of there. All of a sudden these two women came bursting in, they had swords Oliver, swords of all things. As soon as he saw them he dropped his hands and we all slid to the floor gasping for air. These two women, they moved so fast, it was unbelievable, they chopped off his arms and he started screaming and smoke rose from the wounds but the swords weren't glowing hot. After his arms got chopped off one of the women started chanting it what sounded like Latin and this black smoke started coming out of his mouth and I swear there were orange cracks like flames showing through his skin. The woman not chanting moved in and cut his head off. All the guys in my unit just stared at the women. One of them went to the guy who was bleeding and bandaged the wound fast, like she was a medic, they motioned to us to leave and we picked up our wounded man and walked out. We all got so incredibly drunk after that and swore to never mention it again. " Diggle closed his eyes and shuddered. Oliver looked at the computer screen and saw Felicity looking as stunned as he felt. If these things were like what Diggle described there was no way he could save these kids.

" Look I don't know if that's what we're dealing with here Oliver but I just wanted to let you know that what you saw, you're not imagining things. " Diggle said.

" Not sure if that makes things any better. I think I preferred thinking I was nuts. So spirits possessing people? Like a demon or something? " Oliver asked. Diggle just shrugged.

"I don't know but whatever it was and they are, they are not human, even if they look it. " Oliver heard keys clicking ferociously and knew Felicity was already researching.

"Hey Oliver, these Winchesters they mentioned. Did they say anything else about them? " Felicity asked.

"Other than they weren't in town yet no. It seems like there's a possibility of an ambush or a trap for these Winchester people but I can't really give you anything else to go on. Sorry."

'Well, there's of course a ton of information on demons but who knows what is right or not and I am trying to cross reference demons with people named Winchester but I don't know if I am going to find anything. " she said.

"Well it's a start but I need to get more information on these things and the only way to do that right now is to go out there. " Oliver looked a question at Diggle, he wasn't sure if Dig wanted to face something like that again. Diggle looked him full in the face, "Yeah I'll come with you." he said with a small nod. Oliver reached down and helped him up off the floor.

"Let's go as civilians, we probably will draw less attention from these things if they think we are just random people. " Oliver said.

"Well that and your other outfit is hardly as inconspicuous during the day . " Dig said with a little smirk.

"There is that. " Oliver agreed. " Ok Felicity, tell us if you find anything out. You know what buildings we're going to and we shouldn't run into any trouble. Should be back in a few hours. " Felicity's face mirrored her concern but she just nodded and the screen went black. Oliver took in a deep breath, grabbed a few weapons just in case, he saw Diggle did the same and they headed out to The Glades.

"I hope these Winchester people are on our side and know what's happening, I think we are going to need all the help we can get with this one. " Diggle said as they got into the car. Oliver had to agree.

**CHAPTER 6 **

"Sam DOWN!" Dean shouted as he fired over his brother. They had been on the way to Starling City and were about 40 miles outside the city limits at a rest stop when out of nowhere they had been attacked by 3 demons. Dean fired the Colt and took out one, then got hit with a right hook that came out of nowhere and he went flying across the bathroom and cracked his ribs on a sink, fortunately he held onto the Colt. Sam had dropped out of the way of Dean's shot, then came up and nailed a demon under the chin, as the demon fell Sam rode him all the way down pummeling the demon's head against the cement when they landed on the ground. Dean rolled over and shot demon #3 as he went to jump on top of Sam with a knife. Demon #3 hit the ground, Demon #2 opened his mouth and black smoke came pouring out leaving Sam with nothing but an unconscious person beneath him.

"Where the hell did those guys come from? " Dean said as Sam came over to help him up. He winced with the pain "Damn cracked rib. I hate those. "

" I don't know but apparently Ruby wasn't wrong. They are waiting for us. " Sam said.

"Well that's just peachy now isn't it. What are we going to do with this mess ? " Dean walked over to the the person that until recently had been inhabited by a demon, felt for a pulse, there was none. He looked up to Sam and shook his head.

"Damn it…" Sam breathed out. " Well someone will be along at some point, we can torch the place, we don't have time to bury bodies. "

"That will attract too much attention Sam. We're right off a major freeway here. " Dean countered.

" So, what we leave these bodies here for some person to find? That's not right Dean. Look if we set the fire right we will be long gone before it is noticeable. Go check to see if there are any cameras around outside. " Sam started ripping lights out of the wall to try to set a small electrical fire. Dean walked out and looked around for cameras. it looked like this rest stop was not monitored, most weren't but sometimes ones closer to major cities were. He then walked to the Impala, grabbed the gas can and matches and headed back to the restroom and Sam.

"Here you go, let's do this and get going. " Dean started covering the bodies in gasoline. He always hated this part, especially since his contract was going to be up soon and he was going to be getting up close and personal with Hellfire and Brimstone. Sam started the electrical fire and Dean threw a match on the bodies then they turned and left.

Back on the road Dean took a breath and tried to calm the adrenaline that was still pumping through his system. The fact that they got jumped this far out made this whole situation a lot more serious. Lillith or whoever had demons to spare and that was never good.

"Hey there guys. " Ruby said from the backseat. Dean jumped, the car swerved and he almost hit an oncoming car.

" You sadistic bitch. You just love doing that don't you. " He snapped at her.

" It's one of the few perks of demonhood, teleportation is one of everyone's favorite superpowers. Anyway, I narrowed down where they are in the city and you're going to need help. There's about 40 of them in the building. I tried scoping out some virgins but they're so rare these days, especially in a big city. " She reported.

" We are NOT sacrificing a virgin in a spell to nuke 40 demons. " Sam stated. He may be walking a dangerous road listening to Ruby but he had to draw the line somewhere.

" Ok, so you're plan would be? "

"How about we get eyes on this place and see if we can think of something before we go virgin sacrificing? " Dean retorted.

"Yes your plans always work so well. " Ruby muttered under her breath. Dean glared at her in the rearview mirror. He didn't like her, didn't trust her and knew deep down that she was manipulating Sam into something but as of yet she hadn't tipped her hand enough for him to convince Sam of that. He was getting worried that once he was gone and Sam was left alone, he would rely more and more on Ruby. Sam was never good at being alone especially under stress.

" Ruby, what about this guy you said might be able to help us?" Sam asked.

"He's hard to track but I think he has an inkling that something is going on. I don't know a name yet but I'll work on that. You guys try to not get yourselves killed and I'll catch up with you when you settle in. " She disappeared.

" I hate her, I really, really hate her. " Dean said to Sam. Sam looked at him, shrugged his shoulders and turned to look out the window of the car. They passed a sign stating " Welcome to Starling City." Dean shook his head and kept driving.

They pulled into the city proper as the sun was going down.

"So Sam, where are we staying? " Dean asked.

'Well we should probably get closer to "The Glades" part of town which I am sure will be full of shady cheap motels. Just like we like them. " Sam responded with a sigh. "Let's stop somewhere and eat first. I'm starving. "

"Ok " Dean replied "Since were in a big city what are you in the mood for? Let's be extravagant shall we? "

" Sushi...I need sushi" Sam stated succinctly.

"Oh yumm raw fish. What's wrong with steak man?" Just as he said that Dean spotted a restaurant with a sign " Steak and all you can eat Sushi. Tonight's special!" He turned and smiled at Sam "Now that's what I'm talking about! "

" Dean, do you ever eat anything other than standard American food? I mean branch out a bit will you?" "

"Why mess with perfection Sammy. " Dean answered and pulled into the parking lot. Sam was almost out of the car before it stopped. Sushi, he would actually get to eat something other than diner food, he hadn't been this excited in months. Dean laughed at him

"You're like a kid at Christmas. Holy crap, it's just food. "

"You know how excited you get when we get a job in a strip club? Non diner food for me is more of a turn on right now than a naked woman Dean. "

" You always were a bit strange. " Dean said with a smile on his face as they walked into the restaurant.

Out of habit they started walking to a table then Sam realized they were supposed to wait to be seated. Jesus had it been that long? He stopped, grabbed Dean's arm, pointed at the sign asking them to wait, gave the hostess his name and they headed to the bar. There was about a 30 minute wait so they had some time to kill. They settled onto some stools, got some beers and a news report came on the TV.

" The Vigilante's appearance and periodic sweeps through The Glades has definitely decreased crime in that part of the city. It seems he has branched out from just attacking 1% ers without any known reason. Though one has to wonder after the tragedy which Moira Queen stated in her shocking appearance, had been being planned for years if maybe he was trying to stop it. The city police department has been repeatedly declining to comment on the activities of the Vigilante but we have heard rumors that in some instances they have been working together. Later tonight we will have a more in depth report on his activities. Stay tuned. " The channel went to commercial after that. Sam glanced at Dean and saw his thoughts mirrored in his brother's face. This guy whoever he was, seemed to be on the "good side" of things although attacking gangsters and conspiring billionaires was a far cry from taking on 40 demons. He had survived this long so he had to be skilled in fighting and have resources. Sam knew that if they did somehow manage to run into this guy before the deadline, they would have to talk very fast and very convincingly to get him to understand what was going on. Not to mention if he would trust working with complete strangers since it was obvious he was protecting his identity.

"Sam party of 2, your table is ready. " they heard the hostess. They picked up their beers and were shown to a secluded booth in the back. Sam looked at the menu and almost drooled.

"Civilization, oh how I have missed you. " He said. Dean just laughed.

Dean looked at Sam and realized how happy his brother was at that moment. If he had known that food was that important to Sam he would have made sure they got some more variety in food choices. Dean wondered if this is how Sam had looked when he was at college. He had snooped on his brother a few times while he was away at school but it was only for a few minutes, he would catch a glimpse of him walking to class or at home as he looked through Sam's window. Most of the time Sam had looked totally enthralled with his books, a few times Dean had seen Jessica and Sam together. He remembered how excited and free Sam had looked then, now Sam looked more and more like a hunter. Tired, weary, wary and haunted.

"What? " Sam had looked up and caught Dean looking at him.

"Nothing, so what are you going to have first? Rolls or raw fish. ?" Dean knew Sam didn't buy the answer but as often happened they ignored the tension in the room and tried to occupy themselves with other things.

"Dude, it's all you can eat, look at me. I'm pretty sure I can have one of everything on this menu. " Sam started checking boxes next to the sushi offerings. Dean ended up ordering a prime rib, medium rare, a huge salad, garlic potatoes and he even tried some of the sushi rolls Sam ordered. When the plates, and there were several plates, showed up filled with sushi Dean doubted if even Sam could eat it all. Sam worked his way through the rolls savoring every flavor like it was his last day to ever have sushi. It wasn't the best sushi he had ever had but right now he didn't care, it was sushi, nothing else mattered.

Sam ordered a bottle of Sake to end the evening and the brothers sat at their booth much longer than they usually lingered over a meal. They didn't talk much which was odd for them, they just savored the moment of eating a satisfying meal in a restaurant whose decor did not date from the 70s. Finally Dean pushed his plates back, picked up his glass of Sake and looked directly at Sam.

"Sam, look I know I am not the best at this but, well. " Dean hated being emotional but he knew that right now he had to finally voice what had been stuck in his throat since he had made his deal to bring Sam back to life. "Look, after I'm...well not here...I know you are going to want revenge. I get that, believe me I get that. I just….I don't want you to end up like Dad. I loved Dad but...you could have more. You could go back to school. It's just, I want you to live your life not just live for revenge. Look how fucked up our lives were because Dad was living for revenge. " Dean trailed off, he could feel his eyes filling with frustrated tears.

"Dean, you want me to abandon you to hell? " Sam's face was filled with anger and hurt.

" No, it's …" he wasn't getting this right damn him. " We both know I have been living on borrowed time. It's what the Winchester's do best right? Play soul roulette. I made my choice with my contract knowing full well what was going to happen. I don't want to go to hell, trust me, but hell is nothing compared to what I would feel if you traded your soul away to get me back. Dad shouldn't have done what he did. People die, it happens. I'm worried about you, I don't want you to end up dead, alone in some abandoned house with no one around you, or worse like Bobby or some of the other old hunters. You had a chance to get away, you could have another. "

'Do you really think I could go back to school and live a normal life now? " Sam asked, in a very hushed tone. "When I was at school I still had nightmares, I don't know how many times Jessica woke me up because I was thrashing around and talking about demons and vampires in my sleep. I always put her off, she learned not to push after a while. What we hunted and saw before I went to school, it pales in comparison to what I know now and what I have seen and done; and that's not taking into an account the fact that I would be dealing with the fact that you were suffering in Hell while I was up here. I didn't realize how sheltered you and Dad kept me until this last year or so and there are days I would trade anything to go back to that time. Look, I appreciate what you are saying, I really do Dean, but I am a hunter now. Even if I somehow found another person to fall in love with, how do I explain what I have been doing for the last few years? How do I tell them why I have to keep salt and holy water with me at all times? Besides, do you really think that if I "retired" that Lillith or whoever would quit looking for me? We save lives Dean, I can't turn my back on that fact. Yes, I'll keep hunting in part for revenge and to figure out how to get you back or at least out of hell but also because, well , someone has to and someone has to stop whatever it is that is coming down the road. We both know that. " Sam picked up his glass of Sake and pounded it down. " Besides I retired once already and looked how that ended up. He found me, he killed Jessica, that yellow eyed demon may be dead but his plan is still going somehow. Running away won't save me. "

Dean dropped his eyes from his brother's face, guilt, anger, frustration and ultimately exhaustion threatened to overwhelm him. He loved his brother and he had literally traded his soul for his life but in the end he couldn't save him. "I'm sorry." Dean said so softly Sam barely heard it.

"Don't be, we all made choices that we thought were right at the time. There's no point in regretting them now. Now enough of this crap, we just had an amazing meal and I think it's time to go hunt something. That is, if I can move. Damn I ate a lot! " Dean looked at his brother, Sam gave him that look he used when trying to get people to open up. It was that look of support, honesty and understanding and it always worked. Dean was actually surprised it worked on him.

"Yeah, are you having another growth spurt? If you are I may have to chop you off at the knees. You're supposed to be my little brother. " Dean pounded his Sake and they motioned to the waitress for the check. They had work to do.

CHAPTER 7

Well Oliver's idea of scoping the warehouse out during the day had mixed results. He and Diggle had been able to get close enough to get an idea of entries, exits, and some activity but it was very apparent that they were being watched and tracked. All the windows had been blacked out so there was no way of seeing inside where the kids were being held and although there was no official security types around they spotted about 10 people guarding the place. They had 2 or 3 on the roof every time they passed by and others scattered at different doors. Oliver had tried to walk up to an entrance, looking like he was scoping out the place perhaps to buy it and he was pulled up quite short and told firmly and with some force that the building was not for sale. Oliver hadn't wanted to cause a scene or raise more suspicion so he calmly walked away apologizing for the inconvenience.

" Dig, they have this place locked down tight. Any ideas? "

" Come back at night with infrared goggles? We wouldn't have to be so close and we could see what was going on inside hopefully. " Dig replied.

" I have a feeling they are going to be watching the place even closer at night. I don't much like it but we don't really have any other options here. At least we know for sure this is the place, maybe Felicity can pull up some schematics of the building. That would give us some rough idea where the kids may be. " Oliver had never really tackled something like this. True he had attacked a mafia safe house that had about the same amount of guards but he knew his arrows would take down the guards. Right now he had no idea how effective any of his weapons would be. All he knew was that before he made a move he wanted to make sure the kids were indeed in that building and alive, if they confirmed that fact he would do everything he could to get them out of there.

They headed back to the club to get in touch with Felicity and see what she had found out. He had texted her the address of the building and a request to find some schematics or blueprints of it. Hopefully by the time they got there she would have something for them. As they pulled into the club he got a text from her. " Found them, log in as soon as you can. "

'Well Dig, she did it again. " Oliver said.

" You need to give that girl another raise man. Without her you and I would have been killed 4 or 5 times by now. Seriously. "

" I know, but I don't think she cares about money. I think she just loves doing this. I have to do something for her though. " Oliver wasn't sure what would be a good thing to show his appreciation without sending a mixed message. He hoped that she wasn't getting feelings for him but lately he had noticed a shift in how she was perceiving him, perhaps he was overreacting though. Either way that was not important at the moment. They opened the door into the basement room and Oliver signed into the webchat.

" Ok, here we go. " Felicity launched right into the information, on the screen to the left she made a blueprint appear. " Now this is the most recent one I found, assuming there are unlisted additions or improvements this is what you will see. It's two floors, 20,000 sq feet in total between both floors. It was originally used as an automotive repair shop, then it got turned into a foundry and most recently it was a warehouse for a furniture company. I obviously don't know what equipment or whatever is still inside but this is the last listed layout. I also pulled up Google earth and although I don't know the date these shots were taken here's a shot of the roof that shows the building still had these skylights running along the center of the roof. Those might be good entry points for you guys. "

Oliver was not liking what he was seeing way too many office rooms and hiding spots for people to jump out of. Fortunately there was one huge area on the bottom floor and he could hope that they were holding the kids there but for all he knew they had them scattered around the building.

"We are going to have to recon this with the infrareds. There is no other way we are going to be able to do this with any chance of success. " Diggle said.

" I agree." Oliver looked at the webchat "Thanks for pulling these up for us. It will help a lot. Did you find anything else out? "

" Possibly, I got a couple of hits about the Winchesters, or I think I did. It seems there are two brothers, Sam and Dean, that turn up in backwoods towns whenever there are weird disturbances. There's nothing official about any of it just random web chatter. They do tend to leave bodies behind so not sure exactly what they are doing but the few bits of chatter I found hints that they are helping people with all things spooky and unknown. That's about it. Here's some photos I found of them. "

On the screen to the right two security camera shots showed up, just by looking at them Oliver knew that these men were fighters, something in their eyes and the way they held themselves. One, Sam, seemed taller and more lean and Dean looked like he had seen more than his fair share of back alley brawling.

"I wouldn't want to meet either of those guys in a dark room if they weren't on my side. " Diggle said, he was picking up on the same things Oliver had.

"Well if these are the same Winchesters those things spoke of, I understand why they are concerned. Still though, there's only two of them. I don't know. I guess we keep an eye out. I am going to go suit up, it's almost dark out. Dig, go grab the goggles and meet me back here. We'll head out and see what we can find and come up with a plan to get those kids out by tomorrow night. We have to or we will be out of time. "

Diggle headed out and Oliver opened the glass case that held his suit.

" Oliver. " Felicity said from the monitor behind him, "If what Dig told us about are the same things that are here now, how are you going to fight them? I don't think arrows will do much. "

" I have no idea, let's confirm what they are first before jumping to that conclusion though. " Oliver really didn't want to think that he was facing something that fully automatic weapons had no effect on.

" Well, I did some research. From what you guys described and what I read they may be, I can't believe I am saying this, demons possessing people. Apparently they can't be killed unless you have certain blessed weapons and the only thing that hurts them is holy water or salt. I was thinking of ways to work that into your arrow tips. "

" So how do we confirm it's a demon?" Oliver asked as he peeled out of his clothes and started suiting up.

" Throw holy water on it, or the eyes turn black, or they pin you against things with some sort of force and rip you to shreds. " She said.

"Well that last one sounds lovely. " Oliver replied. " Maybe I should stop by a church, put some holy water in a vial and if I run across one I'll dip an arrow in the vial and shoot it. " He said half jokingly, then he turned around and looked at Felicity, she had been dead serious.

"That might be a good idea. Some of the things I read, if that's what these are. They are not to be underestimated that's for sure. "

"Do you really think these are demons? "

"Well, I don't think it would be wise to go in without something to test a theory as to how they got 20 or 30 kids out of their houses with no one calling the authorities, not to mention jumping right on top of a building. " She replied.

"You may have a point. I'll consider it. Keep eyes on us ok? " He asked

"I always have my eyes on you Oliver." Felicity replied. He swore he saw her blush a bit, he really didn't need to think about how to get her to not have feelings for him right now.

"Thanks. Hey if we're fighting demons we need a guardian angel right? I guess you can be our tech enhanced angel. We'll keep in touch. " She smiled at him.

He was finishing off the grease paint around his eyes when Diggle came back in, dressed all in black with two pairs of infrared goggles. "Ready? "

" Always am. How are we playing this? " Diggle asked.

"The usual, we'll park about a block or two away and go in over the roofs. Let me out on the west side before you park though, there's no easy roof jump from the other building to that one and I think I saw some rubble that may be good cover for me. You cover the east, I'll move south, you go north. Text me where you parked and I'll meet you somewhere close to there. "

"You don't want to take the bike? "

"No" Oliver replied. "I don't like leaving it in The Glades, it's too easy to steal even with the upgrades. I don't want to try to get out of there and end up with no ride. " That had happened once and it had almost cost him his life. This was one of the worst areas of The Glades and he wasn't willing to risk it.

"Alright, you're the boss. Ready to hide in the back of my car ?" Diggle asked. Oliver laughed. "See you soon Felicity " Oliver turned off the web chat and they headed out.

Diggle took a pretty circuitous route to the building, Oliver was laying down in the back seat he felt the car slow down and saw that they were turning into an alley.

"Time to tuck and roll Oliver. You're one block west of the building. Ready? On three. 1...2...3" As soon as Diggle said three Oliver pushed the car door open, launched himself out of the car, hit the ground and rolled. Diggle was getting pretty good at gauging where Oliver would end up at the end of his roll, sure enough as he popped up into a crouch at the end of the roll Oliver was right in front of a dumpster. Diggle accelerated away into the night and Oliver hopped up on the dumpster to a fire escape. Usually that worked flawlessly but this fire escape had suffered some damage in the quake and it came loose as he landed on it and he found himself clinging one handed to a swinging fire escape, not the best start to a night. He looked around and found a window ledge that looked safe, or he hoped; he started swinging his body to gain some momentum, let go of the fire escape at the apex of the swing and his hands found purchase on the ledge. He pulled himself up, got his feet on the ledge and tried to see his next move. A series of window ledges led to the roof, not for the first time was he happy that he practiced a lot on that salmon ladder. Fortunately they were staggered so he was able to hop from one to the other, do a muscle up, get on top of it and jump to the next one. By the time he got to the roof he was definitely warmed up for the rest of his journey. From the rooftop Oliver spotted the alley that had the debris he had noticed when they had come through here in the daytime. It was in an alley next to the west wall of the warehouse, he had seen where he could drop right off a second floor landing into the debris with hopefully no one the wiser. There was an open spot in the debris where the landing had looked safe enough. He started to make his way to the alley keeping his eyes open for any sign of guards around the building. As he got close to the spot he was aiming for he heard some sounds from the alley below. He crouched down and got close to the edge to listen.

"They're here now. Did you hear that? We still have two days until the ritual and they're here already! This will never work. " A woman's voice said

"Calm down! You act as if they are invincible. They are only human and there are 40 of us. I think we can handle the brothers. " replied a male voice.

" You know how many of us they have killed? Plus that backstabbing, dishonorable little whore Ruby is helping them. " replied the woman her voice rising in panic.

'Shut up you coward. " Oliver heard the sound of a ringing slap.

"BASTARD! I'll gut you for that. " the woman said.

" No, you won't. You aren't strong enough so shut up, do your job and prepare the ritual. If the littlest thing is wrong it won't work and we all know how she deals with inferior spellcrafting. " he heard footsteps as they walked off. He peered over the ledge, the alley looked empty. He hopped down to the landing below him on the building, spotted his landing in the rubble then jumped. He had failed to notice on his drive through the area that there was a sheet of aluminum propped slightly at an angle on some of the rubble, he landed on it and it clanged. There was no way that would go unnoticed.

'What was that?! Go check it out! " he heard the male voice order. Damnit, he had nowhere really to hide in this alley other than the rubble and he would be spotted if he tried to run for it. He crouched down further into the rubble and hoped he would not be spotted, he calmed his breathing as he slowly pulled an arrow out of his quiver . He wouldn't be able to shoot it but there was always the option of stabbing someone with it. He heard the footsteps approaching his hiding place. The woman approached

"Come out, come out and play. . I can smell you. There's nowhere to go. " He watched her feet pass by him. He leaned further into the rubble, he watched the feet turn around and seem to walk by him. "Why there you are.." All of a sudden he felt his body being gripped by an unimaginably strong force. It lifted him up, through the rubble and pinned him against the alley wall. Apparently they were dealing with demons, he thought to himself as he started fighting to breathe.

"What is that you have? " The woman asked, she had red hair, stood about 5'4 high and was dressed like she had been planning to go on a date however that was probably a few days ago before she had been possessed Oliver thought. Her clothes were dirty and wrinkled, like she had been sleeping in them and her makeup had faded away.

"Is that an arrow? An actual bow and arrow?! My, my I haven't been threatened at arrow point in at least a century. How quaint. Not that you are any threat to me, but it's still quaint. " she said.

"What did you find Kara?" The male was walking down the alley to join them. " Is that our local vigilante? How priceless. I guess he's here to try to save the children. " They looked at each other and laughed. If Oliver could breathe he would have been angry at their dismissal of him but he was being slowly crushed by an unseen force.

'What should we do with our little archer here? " Kara asked.

" We could use him for target practice. I mean it would be poetic, the archer pinned to the wall with his own arrows. I am sure the police would love the gift wrapped delivery. " Oliver felt his arrows get pulled out of his quiver by unseen hands and tried to struggle against whatever it was that was holding him.

"Hush little one. " Kara said. " I wonder what he looks like underneath that hood. Cameron try to get one to pull his hood back, it's ok if it takes some of his scalp with it. " Oliver watched in horror as his arrows flew into Cameron's hand who then took one, held it about where Oliver's head height was and let go of it, it hung in midair. Cameron made some show of aiming it at Oliver's head.

"Hmmm, at least it 's not too windy tonight, I shouldn't have to adjust my aim too much. " Cameron said. He smirked and looked Oliver straight in the eyes and blinked. Once again Oliver saw the eyes go completely black then back to normal. Cameron raised his arms, miming holding and aiming a bow and started pretending to pull back the string. Oliver felt completely helpless, he couldn't scream, move and could barely breathe.

"Oh this is simply delicio…." Kara started to say, then Oliver heard a shot and Kara started screaming, her face started to crack and break and orange the color of flame started flashing through her she just dropped to the ground. Oliver dropped like a stone as whatever force held him to the wall abruptly stopped.

'Hey there. Sorry to interrupt your party games but I've never been a big fan of pin the tail on the donkey. There's always that one kid that "accidentally" pins the tail to the donkey's eyes. Wrong man, just wrong " Oliver heard a voice from down the alley. Cameron's head whipped around, Oliver's arrows fell to the ground.

"Hello Dean and Sam. Welcome, we've got such a surprise for you. " he said then Cameron just disappeared into thin air.

"I hate it when they do that. " the taller one of the two men coming down the alley said.

" You should have just shot him. " the other one replied.

"Saving bullets Dean, saving bullets. "

Oliver figured this would be the Winchesters and he wasn't really prepared to meet them, he had too many secrets and hadn't planned and getting any more allies. Unfortunately there was no quick and easy place to disappear to. He pulled his hood up as much as he could, angled his face away and said " Thank you. " He started to stand back up and found that his legs wouldn't support him.

"Easy there. " Oliver looked up and saw it was Dean that was talking to him.

"That demon death hold takes a bit out of you. Seriously though arrows? " Dean looked down at the man they had rescued. He assumed this was the Vigilante. Either that or one seriously confused guy who should probably be medicated. Sam coughed and glared at Dean.

"Here, let me help you. " Sam reached out his hand, the man on the ground clasped it and allowed Sam to pull him up and then he leaned against a wall to catch his breath. An uncomfortable silence filled the alley, all three men had a hunch that they needed to work together but none of them knew how to start the conversation. Finally, Oliver broke the silence.

"You're Sam and Dean Winchester, correct? " He asked.

"What the...is there some infernal internet memo or something going around saying "Hey these are the Winchester boys in case you ever see them" ? " Dean ground out.

Sam tried to hide his laugh at his brother's reply " Yes we are. Why?"

"These things, they mentioned you, they are afraid of you. They're planning some sort of trap for you I think and a ritual or whatever. They're going to kill a lot of kids. They're in my city, I cannot allow this to happen. " Oliver said. Now that he had been face to face with one of these demons and had an inkling as to how powerful truly evil they were, he felt a cold rage building in him. These things shouldn't be allowed to live. "How do we stop them?" Oliver turned to face the Winchesters.

Sam and Dean looked at the man they had just rescued, he had the build of a warrior and his costume or whatever looked well made and expensive. As he turned to face them, even though they couldn't see his eyes with the hood shadowing them they felt the impact of his determination to protect his city and rescue these kids. It was in the set of his jaw, the tightening of his shoulders and how his hand gripped his bow. Archaic weapons aside this man would be an asset to them in this job. Sam looked closer at the bow and realized it was actually a modern made weapon, looked to be a high end, custom compound bow, he glanced over at the arrows scattered on the ground. They also looked custom and expensive. Sam started solidifying in his mind some suspicions he had about the identity of the man in front of them. Sam glanced at Dean who gave him a small nod. Dean had noticed the same things that Sam had.

"The basics? Salt and holy water slows them down, sometimes makes them vacate the body they are in. The only thing that kills them is this gun. " Dean held out the Colt so that their new friend could see it. "So what do we call you? Arrow guy? " Dean asked. Sam just about punched his brother.

"What he meant to say was what's going on here? " Sam tried to cover for his brother. The Vigilante looked up and down the alley.

"It's not safe to talk here. There are about 40 of them, well 39 now and I am sure the other one is telling the others you're here. Follow me. " Sam noticed he was disguising his voice electronically somehow. The Vigilante took off at a run and Sam and Dean bolted to keep up with him.

Now that Oliver was out of earshot of the Winchesters he started talking to Diggle and Felicity via the earpieces they all had. "Ran into the Winchesters. These are demons, do not engage these things Dig. They just about took me out. I think we can trust the Winchesters. I am heading back to where you dropped me off Dig. I will let you know when to pick me up. I am going to fill these guys in on what's going on in that building. " Oliver took a sharp right at the next alley and heard the Winchesters keeping pace with him. At least they were in shape. He stopped in front of a wall that he could use to hop onto a shorter building, at least they wouldn't be in the streets. The wall was about 10 ft high, he hopped up it, pulled himself up, ran along the edge and jumped to the roof of the other building.

"Who the hell is this guy? " Sam asked. "I've only seen moves like that on parkour youtube videos. " The brothers followed the Vigilante, although not as gracefully.


	2. Chapter 8 All Paths Lead to the Roofs

CHAPTER 8

When he got to the roof Oliver stopped, turned back to the warehouse , he could get a decent view of it from this location. He grabbed the infrared goggles and put them on, instantly he was blinded when he looked at the walls of the warehouse. They glowed red hot, like the walls themselves were emitting heat. He ripped off the goggles and turned to face the brothers.

"Here look through these. Can you explain this? " He handed the goggles to Dean who peered through them.

" Damn! That's some serious spellwork. " Dean said and handed the goggles to Sam so he could take a look.

" Well, that's something we haven't seen before. I guess it makes sense that rituals would emit some sort of heat or energy. You can pick up spirits on cameras but not always see them. We should start packing these, be nice to know if we are entering a magically protected or possessed building before we get attacked for once. " Sam said.

"What does this mean? " asked Oliver. Sam and Dean looked at each other, they knew what was going on inside the building but they weren't sure how much the Vigilante would believe what they would have to say. As if he sensed the reason for their hesitation he spoke.

"Look, you gentlemen seem to be the experts here. Those things are afraid of you and you have a weapon that stops them. Just tell me what it is, even if I don't accept what you have to say as reality I will suspend my skepticism to help stop this. "

"Well that's a first." Dean said, "If only all the people we had to help were as willing to listen as you are. Fine, they are trying to open a gate to hell and release more demons. The kids are a sacrifice to pull it off. Major rituals like this require major amounts of blood, pain and death. Lillith, that's the queen bitch demon, is coming here in 2 days to pull it off. Your little man made earthquake adventure brought out a lot of rage, anger, hate and pain in this city. All that stuff attracts demons like hyenas to a carcass. If she opens the gate, what this city suffered during that earthquake will look like a picnic by comparison. "

Oliver turned away from Dean and bowed his head, another wave of guilt and frustration at his inability to stop the Undertaking poured through him. He heard Sam's voice behind him.

"You tried to stop it didn't you? "

"Yes, tried and failed. 503 lives were lost, including the life of my best friend" Oliver replied. Once again Dean was surprised at his brother's intuitive leaps. Oliver looked over his shoulder at Sam. Sam's eyes were haunted but filled with understanding of loss. Sam pushed his hair back from his face in what appeared to be a nervous gesture and somehow Oliver knew that these two men would be some of the few people who could understand what he felt and dealt with.

"Look. " Sam continued "We've all been there. The past is the past though and we have to stop this now or those 503 lives will be just the beginning. "

" I know. " Oliver took a breath and continued. " There are 20-30 kids inside, and as I said about 39 demons from what they said. . I got access to the most recent of the blueprints to the building. My plan tonight was to try to see the layout of where the kids and the guards were by using the goggles but that doesn't seem to be an option with this spellwork or whatever blocking out everything. " Just then he heard Diggle in his ear.

"Oliver, I got a look inside the place. I have a rough idea of the layout and you're not going to like it at all. I'm heading back to the where I parked. Meet you where I dropped you off in 20 mins. "

"Correction. " Oliver said " I have a contact who got a look inside. He's meeting me in 20 minutes. Let me see if he is ok with meeting you two. " Oliver walked away from Dean and Sam and spoke to Diggle

"Are you ok meeting the Winchesters? Did you bring anything to disguise yourself? " Oliver said.

"Yeah if you trust them. I am not worried about being recognized I don't think they will be hanging around after this is over. "

" Ok, your call. Meet you there. " Oliver turned to walk back to the brothers and noticed they seemed to be in the middle of an intense conversation.

"Sam really? This guy may be good but he's an amateur when it comes to this. He'll only get in the way. " Dean said

" Dean, look 39 demons and 20 or 30 kids. We need the help, he has information and he sure as hell won't let us do this alone. Most importantly he's willing to listen and at least hear us out. How often has that happened to us before a bunch of people died? Besides we are on a deadline. He has more to lose than we do here." Dean realized Sam was right and was going to be stubborn about it. Dean just didn't want to get another amateur killed or worse. He shook his head and turned away signaling that although the conversation had ended he didn't like the result. The Vigilante was walking back to them.

"My contact is willing to meet you. We have about 20 mins to get there. " Oliver said and then started heading across the roof.

"Hey Arrow guy." Dean called " We have a car. How about we do this using modern technology? " Sam winced. Oliver realized that he and Dean we're going to have to have a conversation and fairly soon. Well, no time like the present.

"Dean, I'm going to assume that you are incapable of having a civil conversation with anyone other than your brother and your idea of diplomacy or tact is stuck in the same place as that Colt you carry that dates from the Wild West era. It's either that or you are just an impertinent asshole that needs people to prove their worth to him. If it's the first I'll ignore your constant tactless remarks, if it's the second I'll prove my worth to you in 60 seconds or less. " Oliver put his bow down and faced Dean head on. A huge grin split Sam's face and he backed away from Dean clearing space. This would be entertaining. Dean got a lopsided grin on his face.

" I think I'm going to like you after all. However since you offered. Show me what you got. " Dean handed the Colt to Sam and turned back to face Oliver and he saw that under the hood the Vigilante was also grinning a bit.

Both of them were too experienced to rush in and start throwing punches, Oliver backed up a bit to get Dean clear of the ledge, he didn't want to accidentally throw the guy over. Dean closed first and threw a right hook at Oliver's face. Oliver easily dodged the blow, grabbed Dean's arm, capturing it in a joint lock which bent Dean over, as Dean was heading to the ground Oliver circled behind him, hit the nerve clusters in the back of Dean's leg with his knee. As Dean's leg collapsed he twisted throwing Oliver off balance and used a hip throw to get his arm free. Oliver rolled onto the ground and popped up facing away from Dean, he spun around and threw a kick at Dean's head. He pulled it so as not to injure him, Dean's head wasn't there though. Dean had crouched low and ducked the kick while launching forward to try and tackle Oliver. Oliver completed the kick and used the momentum to twist enough to break Dean's hold and brought his fists down on the back of Dean's neck once again pulling his power. Dean rolled forward and Oliver hopped out of the way and took a fighting stance behind Dean.

"Well well, not too shabby there Arrow. " Dean said as he turned around and shook his head a bit. He could tell that the Vigilante was pulling his speed and strength quite a bit. He had been as well since this was just a sparring match but still, in that few seconds of fighting he could tell he was outclassed when it came to martial arts. Sure he and Sam could hold their own in a fight, but they were brawlers, this guy had had some serious training. He wasn't even breathing hard, he was relaxed, completely balanced on his feet and had some serious body control. Dean hadn't even gotten a hit on him and had been nailed twice in spots that, if this had been a serious bout, would have left Dean incapacitated for sure.

Oliver was also sizing up Dean. His first impression had been right. These guys were brawlers, tough to be sure, strong and fast for their size but no real match for him. He knew though that Dean was going to be the one he had to win over. For whatever reason Sam already trusted him to an extent. Dean however, was protective and suspicious of anything new in his world it seemed. Oliver couldn't have Dean doubting him when the fight started.

"Well Dean. Do we waste more time here or do we get this job done? " Oliver asked. Dean walked past him back to Sam.

" We have a job to do Arrow, let's go. However I am not hopping rooftops all night with you, that's just ridiculous. Our car is parked on the other side of this alley let's go already. "

Oliver was hesitant to be hiding in the back of someone else's car, he felt somewhat foolish at the thought of that. He hesitated. Sam came to his rescue though.

"Look, how about you meet us somewhere with your contact? You'll probably want to fill him in more on what's going on." Sam said.

"Good idea. There's an abandoned church on 5th Ave and Peach St called St Michael's it was deemed unsafe after the quake. It's about 2 miles away we can meet there. "

"Wait a second, it's abandoned? " Sam asked.

'Yes. " Oliver replied "Why?" he asked as he picked up his bow and put his arrows back in his quiver.

"It's a trap." Ruby said from behind Oliver. Oliver whirled and had his arrow pointed straight at Ruby's heart in a second. Dean and Sam were impressed with how fast he moved.

"Who are you? " Oliver asked

"She's our very own demon oracle. " Dean said. Sam sighed.

"This is Ruby, she helps us sometimes, she's a demon but says she isn't as evil as the rest. That's still up for debate. " Sam said. "Oh and she sort of appears out of thin air, you get used to it. " Dean huffed in exasperation.

"Thanks for the oh not so flattering introduction. That Tara chick was a demon trying to get you here. So you may want to relocate your gathering. A bow and arrow. How cute. " Ruby said. Oliver was getting rather tired of being called cute and quaint. "Anyway, don't go there. I can't be much help to you this time, if I get much closer to that building they will know I am here and I don't love you boys enough to take on that many demons with your usual plans. I can tell you though that there are some in there that the Colt will not affect, so think with something other than the gun in your pants Dean. It will only hurt for a little bit I promise. " Then she disappeared.

" Ok then. Abandoned warehouse 3rd and Mill 1 mile south of here. Get your phone out and I'll tell you the address so you can find it. " Oliver said. Sam got his phone out "2322 West Mill Ave, there's a sign on it that says Queen Consolidated Warehouse 2 . We will meet you there in about 30 minutes. The door on the west side should be unlocked. " Then Oliver turned, jumped back down onto the wall and towards where Diggle had dropped him off.

Sam and Dean watched Oliver fade into the shadows.

" Well, that was different. " Dean said.

" Yeah. " Sam replied, then smirked and looked at Dean, " He so would have kicked your ass."

" Would not have. I was going easy on him. " Dean retorted in an injured tone. "Get that grin off your face. I didn't want to hurt his ego. Any guy that has to wear a costume to fight crime or whatever must have a self confidence issues. " Sam bust out laughing and hopped down onto the wall and he and Dean headed back to the Impala.

"Seriously though. What do you think? "Sam asked Dean.

" Of what, the fucked up situation or our new ally? "

" Both I guess. "

Dean sighed "I think Arrow guy will be an asset and he seems to be shooting straight and telling the truth. " Dean glanced up at Sam who just gave him a "you had to go there" look. Dean smirked "As far as the job, let's see what this guy's contact says. If he can give us a good idea of the layout maybe we can get this done without it turning into amateur night. I really don't like kids as hostages though. Too many things can go wrong in the panic, we need to get them out first somehow. "

"I agree. Well let's head to this warehouse and see what the guy says. "

The two of them made it back to the Impala and headed out to the address Oliver had given them.


	3. Ch9 Laying Plans and Remembering Prayers

Chapter 9

Oliver headed down the alley away from the brothers. He had to admit those two made an interesting pair, he smiled in anticipation of Dean meeting Diggle. His smiled faded though as he started processing what they had told him. A gate to hell? He had no concept of what that would mean but after his run in with the two demons he knew that they had to stop it whatever it took. He vaulted over the low wall that separated the two alleys, and hopped over some scattered debris in the alley. He ran through these areas so much at night now he felt he knew them almost as well as the island, he rarely needed to focus his thoughts fully on his movement now. It had taken him awhile to adjust to the urban territory but he found sometimes a run through the abandoned parts of The Glades calmed him more than anything else. Running gave him a sense of freedom he rarely had anymore. The sparring match with Dean had kicked his adrenaline in a bit, he had to agree with Diggle though, if he hadn't received all the training he had he would definitely not want to meet either Sam or Dean in a dark alley if they weren't on the same side. They had dispatched the one demon without hesitation and it was obvious that violence was part of their daily lives. They could definitely handle themselves, Oliver found himself wishing that he could convince them to hang around after this was done. He could use some more people who were good in fight and he couldn't be everywhere at once, plus they understood him. He put those thoughts away as he cleared the corner and saw Dig waiting for him. Dig looked shaken and not much ever shook Diggle..

"Hey Oliver. The Winchesters couldn't keep up with you? "

Oliver smiled "They wanted to take their car. What can I say Dig, you're the only person I lay down in a back seat for these days. "

"Oh man, so not what I needed to hear. Thanks, really. Where we headed?" Dig replied.

" Warehouse #2 of Queen Consolidated on 3rd and Mill. " Oliver hopped in the back seat and ducked down.

"Seriously? Why not just tell them who you are? "

" Somehow I think at least Sam may already have that figured out. I'll fill you in as we drive. Drop me off outside the gates though. I told them the door on the west side would be open. I think you'll find the brothers entertaining. The tall one, Sam, he's the intuitive one and the researcher. Dean, well , don't be fooled by the smart ass remarks. He's smarter than he acts. Dean and I sparred a bit, they are brawlers but they won't freeze in a fight. They told me that this Lillith demon is trying to open a gate to hell, the kids are some sort of sacrifice. Did you try to use your goggles? " Oliver asked

" Yeah, damn near burned my eyes out. What caused that? "

" Apparently spellwork the demons are laying. Let me tell you from the beginning then you fill me in on what you found out. "

Oliver described his run in with the demons, how the Winchesters came out of nowhere and saved him, the conversation and sparring session on the roof, Diggle drove and listened without comment.

"Ok, let me explain my night . " Diggle said. "I got to the east side and tried the goggles like you did and had the same results. I figured since I was there I may as well try it the old fashioned way. Fortunately the east side had a lot more hiding places and minimal lighting I made my way up a fire escape because I had noticed some of the windows on the second floor had not been blacked out. Lazy demons I guess. I got up to the windows and looked through, you're not going to like this. "

He paused, the memories of what he saw threatened to overwhelm his control. "The kids are all in cages, 4-5 kids to a cage and they are placed in some sort of pattern across the ground floor. There are a bit more than 40 demons, more like 60 and they seem to have painted the floor and the walls with designs, a lot of them look like they are done in blood. The kids are either panicking or comatose from shock, most of them look like they have been beat up, some have no clothes on anymore. It appears as if the demons are amusing themselves torturing the kids. I don't know where they got that much blood from and I really don't want to know. If I had to guess though I would say there's a lot less homeless people in The Glades now. "

While Diggle had been speaking Oliver had slowly become more and more enraged, torturing kids! Not in his city. If he hadn't been in Diggle's car he would have struck out at something just to release some of the pent up emotions. Slowly he channeled that anger into resolve, this would end by tomorrow, he would not leave those kids alone another night.

"We can't just bust in there shooting things . " Oliver said. " We need a way to clear out those demons and get the kids.. Some sort of big distraction or diversion. The Winchesters said something about salt and holy water having an effect on them. Did you see if the doors were chained shut or bars on the windows? "

" No, it looked like they aren't expecting visitors. They aren't locking things up behind them. They seem pretty confident they can handle anything that gets thrown at them." Dig replied.

"How about the skylights? Were any of the cages under skylights? How were the cages locked? "

" It was hard to tell but I am sure some of the cages would be in range of something thrown through a skylight. Padlocks and chains. Why, what are you thinking? "

"Perhaps it's time we brought the rain to these demons. What do you think? " Diggle didn't catch on at first, then he smiled viciously when he understood what Oliver was saying. "After all Dig, there should be some perks to being a wealthy vigilante. Do you know any people that could help out, I'd pay them of course. I know where to get the trucks too. "

" Yeah I can round up a few. How many we need ? "

"Oh I don't know " Oliver answered " One for each door I think. I just need to find out how one goes about blessing that much water. Fortunately I know the people to ask. " Just then Diggle pulled up to the gates of the warehouse. Oliver hopped out of the car and made his way to the west side door. In front of the door was parked a well maintained 67 black Impala. Somehow the old muscle car seemed to fit perfectly in with the old abandoned warehouse that dated back to around the same time. Oddly enough the Impala managed to class up the old building, Oliver had a stray thought that the car was telling the building to not give up hope, someone would appreciate it again. Perhaps he could restore a lot of these old buildings and give The Glades some hope as well. He pulled open the door and heard the distinctive clicks of hammers on guns being pulled back, he froze in place.

"It's me. My contact will be arriving in a moment. Relax. " He told the dark figures that emerged from the shadows. "The situation is a bit more complicated than we thought but I have an idea on how to temporarily get the demons out of the way and get the kids. "

"Things are always more complicated when demons are involved. " He heard Sam say. They heard the door open again.

"Sam and Dean, this is John. " Diggle walked up next to Oliver.

"Hello." Diggle said and reached his hand toward Sam. Sam took the big man's hand. Diggle was nearly as tall as he was and definitely more muscular. He carried himself like a military man, Sam could just make out the outlines of his arms in the shadows, and they were huge.

"Sam Winchester and this is my brother Dean. " Dean and Diggle shook hands and Sam watched the two of them size each other up. "Who drives the Impala? " Diggle asked

" I do" said Dean.

"She looks sweet. I'd love to take a ride in her. "

'She purrs like a kitten. We can do that sometime. "

Dean cracked a smile and nodded slightly at Diggle who nodded back.

"Ok so this is what John found out. He got eyes inside the building through a second floor window. There are about 60 demons in the building from what he could see, the kids are being held in cages 4-5 to a cage on the ground floor, arrayed around some sort of design that's painted on the floor. Apparently the demons are tormenting the kids, John said many looked like they had been beaten and some have no clothes anymore. There are 4 access doors that are not locked it seems and skylights run along the center of the roof. " Oliver reported

"Wait you said 60 demons?" Dean asked incredulously.

"Yes, apparently you gentlemen have quite the reputation. Many of them seemed nervous about your sudden appearance in town and mentioned something about meeting you at a church." Diggle replied.

'Even if Ruby hadn't of shown up after you said the church was abandoned we weren't going to go there. " Sam said. He explained to Diggle and Oliver about the messages on his site. "Although it is kind of ironic that the reason we saw you getting pinned to the wall in alley was that we were on the way to look at the church and see if it was a trap. It was sheer luck I happened to look down the alley as we passed it."

"Well at least something went a little right tonight. " Oliver said.

" So what's your plan? " Dean asked, Dean saw a vicious grin cross the Vigilante's face.

"How hard is it to make several 1000 gallons of water holy? " Oliver asked.

"Not hard, get it all in one place, say a blessing over it, or pour water that is already holy into it, or put a holy object like a rosary in it. Why? " Sam replied.

"The four of us are no match for that many adversaries. Your Colt has limited ammunition, I can only carry so many arrows at a time and even if the arrow tips are dipped in holy water it's too risky. We need to panic these demons and get the kids out, then finish off the demons if they don't leave on their own. I may be able to acquire some water trucks that will pump around 650-700 gallons per minute of water. I am thinking that flooding the building with holy water and dumping salt through some skylights should induce the appropriate amount of panic. It also will probably disrupt that spell work as well. That should cause sufficient enough damage to stop this ritual. " Oliver explained. " I assume the water won't hurt the children, we will aim the nozzles towards the floor so as to lower the chance of hitting the kids with a blast of water. While that is going on we can get in and get the kids out. What do you think? "

Oliver wished he could get a shot of the look on their faces when he finished. Sam and Dean had the most vicious, hungry look on their faces. "Oh I love this plan!" Dean stated. Oliver could tell that they were desperate for some kind of payback with these demons. He wondered what their histories with the demons were..

"I think we can add just a bit more destruction to your idea Arrow. " Sam said. " Can you get us a PA system or a loud car stereo. We pulled a trick awhile ago where we piped a recording of an exorcism over a PA system in a police station. We could do that here as well. After we flood the place we can start playing that as well and that will send the demons back to hell. "

" I know a DJ " Diggle said. " He'd probably let us borrow some gear as long as it doesn't get wet. They'll hear it over the water rushing in I promise. Maybe we can even set it to a bomb ass techno beat . " Diggle's teeth flashed in a vicious grin that mirrored the brother's look.

"Ok then. That's the basics of it we need to coordinate how we are getting the kids out. We have to get those padlocks off. " Oliver said.

" Don't worry we got that covered" Sam replied. " We deal with locked doors all the time. " He shot a sidelong glance at Dean. "There's something you need to know though. The people those demons are possessing, they are innocent and have no control over what they are doing right now. This plan should raise the chances they will survive but often the demons have ridden these people hard and they just die, or when they demon vacates a person, the experience kills them. "

"Those people are probably the children's parents. Which makes this even worse." Oliver replied. "We can only do what we can do. At least this way we are decreasing the chance that they will get caught in the crossfire. John here can sketch out the layout of the building. I can be on top dumping the salt down and covering you guys with arrows dipped in holy water. Sam and Dean you run to the cages from a side door, I assume you are shooting the locks off. John can cover you from the door we get the kids out and if there is clean up we handle it after. I'll try to find a skylight that is close to the cages in the hopes that the salt flying everywhere keeps the demons at bay. John's gun may not be of much use but should at least slow someone down if he takes out some knees. Also I want to do this tomorrow before the sun goes down. I will not let those kids sit in those cages another night. "

"There's one flaw to your plan though. You don't think the demons will be suspicious when 4 pumper trucks pull up to the doors? They do have guards out remember? " Dean said.

" I hadn't figured that out until John mentioned the DJ. How fast do they react to that exorcism thing? " Oliver asked

"They usually try to cover their ears and start screaming right off." Sam replied.

" Good. John, let's load your friend's gear in the back of a box truck. I am pretty sure we can park that truck 200 or 300 ft away and our friends will hear it just fine. Especially after we break a few windows with the pumper trucks. Remember gentlemen, those trucks can shoot water 100-150 feet easy. John, can you sketch out the layout for these guys? "

Diggle pulled a notebook out from inside of his jacket. "Already did. " He put the book on a convenient desk and clicked on his flashlight so they could all see it. Oliver had already seen it and he drifted back away from the rest of the group as they picked out spots and discussed tactics.

While he was talking he had been able to keep the images Diggle had described of the kids being abused and tortured out of his mind. Now they came flooding in along with his own experiences of being caged and tortured on the freighter and on the island. He closed his eyes and fought the bout of panic that was coming on, he couldn't imagine what it would be like to see your own parents torturing you, watching you scream and cry out with pleasure on their faces. He started taking deep breaths and for some unknown reason the prayer that Shado had carved onto the archer figurine came to his mind. He started reciting it in Chinese under his breath.

"Houyi teach me, guide my aim, guide my arrow.

Houyi protect me, hide me from my enemy's eyes

Houyi guide me, help my heart stay true and pure

Houyi save me, may my arrows always protect others"

He chanted it over and over and a sense of calm came over him, his senses seemed to get stronger. He knew tomorrow he was going to be wearing that necklace he had made with that figurine. He would need all the strength, guidance and protection he could get.

Sam had noticed Arrow, as they had dubbed him, fade back into the shadows. He was holding his body stiffly as if fighting some sort of internal battle and Sam noticed his mouth moving in some sort of repetitive chant. He shifted his weight to get Dean's attention, Dean looked up from the page and Sam flicked his eyes towards where Arrow was standing. Dean followed his gaze and a look of concern crossed his face. Diggle glanced up and caught the interplay between the two brothers and turned around and realized immediately that Oliver was dealing with a flashback. He had been afraid of that, he knew enough about Oliver's experiences that he had been caged and tortured. He looked back at the brothers and said very quietly. " I'll deal with this. He is ok trust me, just, he has some personal experience with certain things. "

Diggle walked very slowly up to Oliver, a couple of times when Oliver had come out of a flashback he had done so violently. "Sir. " He said. "Sir, we need you. " Having his own experiences with flashbacks Diggle knew that he had to use an even, calm tone of voice to get Oliver to come back. He saw the tension ease from Oliver's body and caught a glint of light from under the hood indicating that he had opened his eyes.

" Kids John, they're doing this to kids, even if we get them out they will never get over it. "  
"I know, but at least they will be alive. " Dig replied

"Is that really saving them?" Oliver said in hushed tones.

"Life is always better than death. " Dean said. "If you're alive you can overcome it, you don't get that chance when you're dead. In our experience violent, traumatic deaths tend to leave behind violent, vengeful spirits who take things out on people for years after their death. We're doing the right thing. It may not seem like it now, but it will in the end. "

"Perhaps. Have you figured out your plan? " Oliver asked, pushing past the emotions.

"Yup, when do we start the party? " Sam replied.

"I'll get a hold of my friend and hook up the gear, we can't get the trucks until the morning." Diggle said. "Are you sure you will be able to find some? "

"I'll put my best person on it. They can track down anything. " Oliver said and Diggle smiled at the compliment to Felicity.

"How many "people" do you have? " Dean asked. "I thought the Vigilante gig was a solo job. "

" Just a few. You need people to stay sane doing this gig." Oliver replied. "We should kick off the festivities around 4-5 tomorrow night. Should we keep watch here make sure nothing changes? "

"Demons are usually pretty stuck in their ways once they set up something this big. Besides we don't want to risk tipping them off. " Sam replied. "This isn't just an ambush for us, they mean business here and no demon wants to risk the wrath of Lillith. "

"What if this Lillith shows up early? " Dig asked.

"Hope that she doesn't because we're not sure even the Colt will work on her. " Sam answered gravely.

"Ok, I'll keep that in mind. You guys have a place to stay yet?" Diggle asked.

" No we hadn't found a hotel yet. " Dean replied. Oliver looked at Diggle and nodded. Diggle shot him a disapproving glance but spoke anyway " I know a place, I'm friends with the owner, he owes me so it will be on the house. I'll call ahead and tell them you are coming. Here's the address. " Diggle wrote down the address to one of the nicest hotels in town that Oliver happened to have standing reservations at, from back in his womanizer days. "When you get there just give them your names, there won't be any questions asked. " Oliver paid extra for discretion.

"Ok, thanks John and Arrow. " Sam replied slightly confused. He was starting to figure out the relationship between the two men and more things regarding Arrow's possible identity clicked into place.

"Your car is pretty conspicuous in these parts, not a lot of cherry 67 Impalas in Starling City. I'll pick you guys up around 2 tomorrow. Ok? " Dig said. Dean beamed with pride at the compliment to his baby.

"Sounds good. See you then. " Dean said and the two headed out to the Impala.


	4. Chapter 10 Oliver Says Thank You

Chapter 10

Diggle looked at Oliver who held up his hand. They listened to both doors of the Impala open and close and it driving off.

"Damn, that car really is cherry. Dean must really love her. ' Diggle said. Oliver walked out the door and made sure both brothers had really left. He walked back into the warehouse, pulled his hood back, turned off the device that disguised his voice and started speaking.

"You're upset that I had you send them to that hotel. " He said

'It's too risky. It will be fairly apparent that I am not friends with the owner of a 5 star luxury hotel who can get two guys into a private penthouse suite. So yeah, a bit. "

Oliver walked past Diggle and stared into space. He had restarted his permanent reservation there when he came back from the island as a way to re-establish that he was still playboy Oliver. He hadn't actually been there since his return though.

"Dig, remember when you came back from the war? How many people could actually relate to your experiences there? "

'Maybe one or two, but everyone I knew from before I went mostly tried to ignore what had happened to me and that I was different now." Dig replied.

" You had been to war which there is at least some possibility of people relating in some way what you went through. My years that I was gone, no one can really understand what I went through. You are probably the only one who has some sort of inkling but other than the people that were there, I can't possibly explain what happened in a way people can relate to it. They see my scars and are afraid, or confused, or pity me. They try to coddle me or drag me back into my life how it was before, they mean well but they do not understand. Now, the Winchesters, think about this a minute. What do they deal with in their lives? Demons? Spirits? Ghosts? Who knows maybe even vampires. how many people do you think understand what that means? How many people that they try to help think they are insane or con men or worse? Do you really think they get any respect or hell even thanked for what they do? "

"Aren't you assuming a lot Oliver? We just met these guys." Diggle replied, although he had to admit Oliver had a point.

" You weren't there to see how they handled those demons in the alley. This is a daily thing for them, this is their lives. There was no hesitation in their manner, no confusion, no fog of battle. They do this all the time. " Oliver turned to face Diggle. "They knew with just a glance down an alley what was going on and they stopped it. They saved my life tonight because that is what they do. I'd be willing to bet you that that car is the closest thing to a home they have. I wanted them to understand that they are appreciated, I wanted to thank them and maybe give them something they have never had and probably will never get a chance to experience otherwise. They get to be waited on, pampered and treated like they are royalty, I promise you that they are more deserving of that treatment that I ever was back when I used that suite all the time. There's no danger of them betraying my identity trust me on this. " Oliver walked out the door to the car. Diggle stood there, speechless, Oliver was maturing fast. When Diggle had first been hired to guard Oliver he thought he would be guarding another pampered, irresponsible rich guy. Then, when Oliver recruited him, Oliver still thought about only himself, his pain, his mission and his desperate need to right his father's wrongs and justify the man's suicide. Slowly Oliver was seeing the bigger picture and tonight Diggle actually felt a sense of pride about Oliver.

"Well one thing's for sure, I would love to see their faces when they get into that room. " Diggle said as he caught up with Oliver.

" So would I. " Oliver said. The two headed back to the club.

Sam and Dean pulled up the address Diggle had given them.

" Are we sure this is the right place? " Dean asked, stunned.

"This is the address he wrote down." Sam replied, also stunned.

They were staring at what was obviously a very expensive, high class hotel. It appeared that the only parking was valet and the valets wore gloves. The hotel was not large but the architecture and landscaping proclaimed to all that looked at it that this was the getaway for the rich and famous who wanted to get away from being rich and famous. It was tucked away in a cul-de-sac and they had had to pass through an imposing arched gateway. They passed through wrought iron gates, statues, manicured trees, and impeccably maintained golf courses, as they had wound their way down the private entry way they had spotted a heli pad and what appeared to be an hangar for small private jets off in the distance.

"What the? " Dean breathed out.

" I have no idea …" Sam replied.

" Ok no one is driving this car but me. " Dean said when they pulled up to the valet stand. " I don't care if they have gloves on. "

" Dean, I don't think they are going to hurt the car. "

Dean glared at his brother. The valet walked around to the driver side. "May I have your keys sir? " He asked politely.

"No you may not!" Dean retorted. " Just tell me where to park and I'll drive there myself."

" Sir, I am sorry but...um, I am supposed to drive your car to the parking structure. Guests aren't supposed to drive their own cars" The valet said. It was obvious that no one had ever argued with him about parking a car.

"Well you can get into the passenger seat and we will go together." Dean counteroffered.

" Dean, let it go. Seriously. " Sam said.

" No, I won't. Sam get out, get our keys to the room and me and the kid here will park the car." Dean's tone brooked no opposition. Sam knew when to give in to his brother and his love for the Impala.

"Remember you're supposed to tip him Dean. "

" What the hell for? I'm doing the driving. "

Sam gave up, he got out of the car and as the valet walked to the passenger side he told him. "I'm sorry, he's married to this car. He can get a bit irrational about it. Just tell him it's an awesome car and soothe his ego, you'll be fine. " He passed the valet some cash just in case. Sam looked through the window and saw Dean glare at him. Sam smirked back, grabbed his bag out of the back seat and walked into the lobby.

The lobby was a masterpiece in rough hewn stone work. Irregular shaped stones packed so tightly together that they needed no mortar or sealant surrounded him; vaulted ceilings, natural wood chandeliers, a fireplace that looked like it could heat a castle crouched in a corner surrounded by comfortable leather and microsuede chairs and recliners scattered about in little conversation clutches; Sam stopped to take it all. What appeared to be reclaimed wood flooring glistened, the lighting showing off all it's variation in hues and texture, he spotted a hallway that had a sign pointing the way to a lounge, a restaurant and a bar, he finally spotted the reception desk. The counter was also wood that topped more natural stone and the people behind the counter were obviously accustomed to dealing with a high class clientele. The men wore suits and ties and the women were in business suits, Sam had never felt so out of place in his life. He walked up to the reception area, gave one of the women a smile.

"Hello, I'm Sam Winchester. I believe we have a room here. "

"Oh of course Mr. Winchester, is your brother arriving shortly? " The woman asked, her name badge said Clara.

" Yes he will be along soon, Clara. Thank you. "

" Do you have luggage that needs to be delivered to your room? " She asked with a smile.

"No, we just have a few bags. "

"Perfect! It doesn't appear as if you have been here before so let me explain how our Preferred Service works. Here's your key to the private elevator which is around the corner to your left and the keys to the suite. You will have to walk all the way down the hall to your right and follow the hall around. There are only two suites on that floor. There is no set check in or out time, when you are ready for maid service to come just post the sign on the door. They won't disturb you otherwise. Now, it is rather late tonight, would you like the chef to prepare you breakfast in room or will you be coming down to join us? " Clara asked. Sam hesitated, still trying to process what she was saying. Private elevator? What?

"Is the chef covered for us? " He asked

"Yes sir, we were instructed to provide all the amenities for you and it would be charged to a third party. " Clara replied, her face betrayed no sense that this was an unusual request. Sam realized that a place like this would have to provide a large amount of discretion for their clientele.

" I think the in room service will be perfect. Can we plan that for around 10 am? " He asked.

" Of course, if you decide you want to change the time please call us and let us know. Is this your brother now? " Sam turned and saw Dean come to a dead stop in the lobby with a stunned look on his face, Sam could only hope he hadn't looked that ridiculous when he walked in.

" Dean, over here. " Sam called. Dean shook his head, oriented on his brother and walked to the reception area. "We are getting breakfast prepared for us in the room tomorrow around 10. Will that be ok with you? " Sam asked Dean

" Uh, um, yeah sure. " Dean was obviously still shell shocked and Sam realized he was enjoying that way too much.

"Anything else we need to know Clara? " Sam asked.

"I don't think so. There is a menu on the buffet that shows you all the options for the in room breakfast and should answer any other questions you may have. If you need anything else just dial 0 to reach us here in reception. " She handed Sam the swipe cards for the room and smiled.

"Thanks" Sam said and gestured for Dean to follow him to the private elevator.

"Stop staring " he told Dean "You look like an idiot. "

"I said it once, I'll say it again. What the hell? " Dean replied.

" Remember when I was telling you about the weird things that happened in this city? " Sam asked.

"Yeah, you said something about a rich guy who returned after being presumed dead for 5 years and that the Vigilante had shown up…..around the same time. Are you serious ?"

"Dean, if that is him maybe this is his way of thanking us. Did you notice how he seemed to be calling all the shots with John? "

"Yeah , I did. " Dean replied. "Plus his gear looks all custom. Not something an average person could afford. Jesus Sam, we just saved a rich guy who actually appreciates it. The Apocalypse must be upon us. "

"Not funny, not funny at all. " The elevator door opened, the number on their swipe cardsaid 1 and the door in front of them had a 2 on it. "Clara said we go the right and follow the hall all the way down, apparently there are only 2 rooms on this floor. " They stepped into a hallway that could only be described as tastefully opulent. The flooring here was carpeted, lush Berber carpet if Sam was any judge, the walls were done in wood and strategically placed benches lined the walls. They found their room door and swiped the card. The door opened a bit without either of them pushing on it, they pushed it all the way opened and walked in, shutting the door behind them.

Dean had always wondered what a penthouse suite looked like but he never thought he would be in one. "How big is this place?" he said as they looked around. A fully stocked kitchen and bar awaited them, a living room with a fireplace and couches dominated the center of the room; he did notice the fur rug on the floor in front of the fireplace, apparently some cliches have to be honored. It was a split floor plan with hallways leading off the living room in both directions. Sam went left and Dean went right, they discovered three bedrooms, two baths, one with a whirlpool jacuzzi tub, some sort of media room with half a wall dominated by a flat screen tv and a pool table to one side, books lined the walls in another room. The beds were huge and looked sinfully comfortable, there was a balcony leading off the master bedroom that overlooked a pool and spa that was built into a rocky cavern with a forested area behind it. The brothers finally made it back to the living room and both sat down on the couch speechless. Sam's main thought was that he would not have to hear Dean's snoring, he would actually have his own room and some privacy. Dean's thought was trying to figure out how many women he could fit into that tub with him.

Dean looked at Sam "I call dibs on that tub." He said.

"Don't make me fight you for that Dean. I will I swear. " Dean grinned and they both started laughing uncontrollably tears streaming down their faces. Sam finally regained control said " Where do we even start? "

"That bar over there looks entirely too full of alcohol. We should empty it a bit. " Dean replied. He walked over to the bar and opened the cabinet doors. 20 year old scotch, whiskey that was probably worth a month's salary for most people, mixers and even a selection of wine were all present. He opened the fridge and found beer as well. "I'm in heaven, I really, really am. " Dean replied. "What do you want Sam? "

"Anything but mixed drinks or wine. "

Dean found the glasses and poured them some of the Scotch, they took their glasses back to the couch. Sam set his down on the end table and figured out how to turn on the gas fireplace, lit the fire and joined his brother on the couch. They raised their glasses to each other in a silent toast, took a drink. Sam reached down and took his shoes and socks off , he just had to rub his bare feet on the furred rug that was in front of them.

" He understands doesn't he? " Sam said quietly.

"Wherever he was for those 5 years I doubt it was a luxury resort. When he had that panic attack in the warehouse, it was because of the idea of the kids being held in cages and tortured. Do you think that happened to him? "

"What would make a billionaire become a deadly fighter taking on crime and evil people with archery? He's seen things, he's seen evil, he survived it but only by becoming something else. He can't go back and no one understands that. We would though. " Sam replied as he met his brother's eyes, the piercing green eyes mirrored his pain, his anger, his need for vengeance.

"Yeah we would. What was his name? " Dean asked

" Oliver Queen. "

" To Oliver Queen then, for seeing evil and choosing to fight it, not to join it or be broken by it." Dean said. They clinked their glasses together, finished off the rest of the Scotch and stared into the flames of the fireplace, basking in it's glow and a sense of communion with a new found brother.


	5. Chapter 11 Blessings

Chapter 11

Diggle and Oliver arrived back at the club, Felicity had been quiet over the earpieces the whole night which was a bit odd for her and Oliver hoped she was ok. He planned to change into civilian clothes and go check on her as soon as he could. As they pulled up he saw Felicity's car.

"Damn it, that woman does not understand the concept of resting does she?" Oliver said. "She's going to hurt her back worse if she keeps this up. "

"Look who's talking. " Diggle muttered. Oliver shot him a bit of a glare and they headed in.

"Felicity….." Oliver started to scold her when he was almost knocked over by the impact of the hug she gave him. She let go of Oliver and plowed right into Diggle to give him a huge hug as well.

"Hey , hey we're ok relax. " Diggle said as he returned her hug. She looked at the men and they could see she had been crying.

"What's wrong? " Oliver asked and then reached out to steady her as she tried to limp back to her chair.

"They are real demons, you're fighting demons and...and…" she gasped out in between sobs. "I was researching Sam and Dean and demons and, these things, they are just horrible. The things I found out, and then you said they were torturing kids and…." The tears started coming again. "I'm sorry, I just, I don't understand. I can't process this in my head. "

Oliver and Diggle exchanged glances, they had been so caught up in planning things that they hadn't really tried to process the fact that demons exist on an intellectual level, whereas Felicity operated primarily on a rational, intellectual level and this whole series of events would not be something she could handle well. They both weren't really sure what to say to make her feel better. Diggle finally walked over and put his arms around Felicity.

'Yeah I guess we hadn't really thought about that. Look we're going to save those kids and take care of the demons. " He said in a feeble attempt to calm her down.

"No Dig, you don't understand. If there's demons than that means there's a God right? I mean logically if you have one you have the other, so if God exists and has angels why aren't they dealing with this? Why do you guys have to go out and fight? Why do the Winchesters have to spend their life fighting these things? Why is there war, famine, all the bad things that happen? Why didn't he stop the Undertaking…." she started shaking. " I stopped attending services because I thought it was all just stories, but what if it isn't? I mean, we have killed people here and I helped. Does that mean I am going to go to some version of hell?"

Diggle looked helplessly at Oliver.

Oliver walked over and knelt down in front of Felicity, he reached up and wiped away some of the tears that were streaming down her face.

"I don't know the answers to any of those questions. I do know if there is a God and he thinks you should end up in hell for helping me and not going to church I would track him down and have a pointed conversation with him, and Dig would be right behind me." Diggle squeezed her a bit harder so she would know that Oliver was right in his estimation. "No angels or anything else could stop us, if we had to we would go to hell and get you back. You of all people know how stubborn Dig and I are about the people we care about. " He smiled at her and he got a little bit of a smile from her in response.

"Thanks Oli. I just, this is all just so much. " She said

" I know. Let's just break it down and remove all the oddities ok?" Oliver replied " We need those water trucks, a box truck and probably about 100 pounds of salt. I think we can take care of making the water holy after we get everything together. Can you track down some trucks for us? Just use the usual card to pay for them. Dig, call your friends and see if they can help, I'll pay them $200 a piece and your DJ friend, find out how much he would rent his gear for. " Oliver was watching her face the whole time and he saw her slowly start to focus on the tasks at hand. She took some deep breaths and turned to her computers and started typing. "We probably need a generator or something to run all the DJ gear, see if you can find a large one for rent as well please. " Her eyes grew more and more focused on her tasks and Oliver looked up at Diggle and nodded. Diggle bent down, kissed Felicity on the head and let her go so he could make some calls. His DJ friend at least would be up even though it was midnight. Oliver took a deep breath of his own, stood up and started switching out his gear.

"Oh and Oliver " Felicity said " I don't care what those things said, you're not cute or quaint. " Oliver realized he had the perfect opportunity to lighten up the mood, he took his shirt off, placed himself in front of some lighting so the light would carve out the muscles on his chest and abs, " Oh c'mon, you don't think I am the least bit cute? " She turned to look at him and he struck one of those ridiculous poses he saw men doing in magazine photoshoots, he was so glad he didn't have to do photoshoots.

Felicity turned around and froze, there was Oliver posing like a model showing off all the muscles she had seen on a daily basis. He had put on his patented Oliver Queen flirting look, a shy lopsided grin, his head slightly tilted to one side and was staring right at her. He definitely knew how to catch lighting to highlight the definition of his chest, abs and arms. His scars, which when she had first seen them had made her uncomfortable, she now saw as an integral part of him. They didn't detract so much from his beauty but heightened it because he had survived. He could have had them removed by now but he chose not to. Her breath caught, "Holy….holy…. water...yeah holy water, must get holy water for tomorrow. Damn you Oliver. " then she started laughing at him. "Ok, maybe you're a little bit cute. " They all started laughing at that point.

" Good, my arms were starting to get sore holding them over my head like that. " He grabbed his normal clothes and went to finish changing out of the Arrow gear. Diggle looked over at Felicity, his face growing somber.

"Are you still in contact with a Rabbi? " he asked

"I know a few. Why?" She replied

"I know a lady who has anointing oils the Pope supposedly blessed. Would your Rabbi be willing to show you a blessing or write a special one out? I think we should do something other than dip the arrows in Holy Water. I also think he should take twice the usual amount. "

"Will doing a Jewish and Catholic blessing cancel each other out?" Felicity asked.

"Don't see why they would. Jesus was Jewish after all. I figure it can't hurt. " Diggle said with a shrug.

"That's true I guess. I'll call them tomorrow and see. We should probably be calling it a night anyway. "

"Yeah, not sure any of us will sleep though. " Diggle replied. He and Felicity shared a look, going home to empty houses seemed a lot less relaxing tonight. Felicity knew she wouldn't be able to relax at all. Oliver walked back in and felt the tension in the room. He headed to the trunk where he stored all his items he had brought back from the island and dug through it until he found a small wooden box. He opened it and pulled out the figurine that Shado had made him. As he placed the necklace around his neck swore he felt Shado's hand on his chest in that gesture she had used to remind him to find his center during archery practice. He turned and looked at his two closest friends.

"Look, Mom is out of town on a business trip and I got a text from Thea saying her and Roy were staying out of town for a few more days. Why don't you all come back to the house with me? It's not like there's a shortage of rooms there. " Truth be told Oliver didn't want to spend another night alone in that huge house either, too many memories came back at night. "If you guys want I can make some tea that will knock us out for a good 10-12 hours . " He said with a smile.

"That stuff again? I only drank a few sips of it and passed out between typing one sentence and the next. I woke up and was drooling on my keyboard. " Felicity replied "If you don't mind the company, I would like that very much. Dig? "

"I'm technically his bodyguard so I may as well. " Diggle tried for an offhand tone but it came out a bit more relieved sounding than he had planned. "I'm starving though and it's late, our usual place is closed, any requests? "

"I can cook a mean midnight omelette. " Felicity stated. "I can bring stuff to cook from my place. "

Oliver looked at her "I think we should have most everything you need at the mansion but if you want something particular in them feel free. I'll see you all there in, about 45 mins or so? " He asked. They both nodded at him, he turned and headed out the door. He had just reached where the motorcycle was parked when he heard a step behind him. He turned around and saw Felicity.

"I know you promise me that you will be careful when you go out on missions now but this time that won't be good enough for me. I am so scared this time Oli, this is so big. I can't trust just words this time. " She was close to tears again.

"Ok. " He thought about it for a minute. " Tomorrow before we head out I will give you something important to me, that way I have to come back and get it from you. When I leave, I'll give you the picture of Laurel I kept with me on the island. I want you to understand something though. It's not just the picture of Laurel I will be coming back for. Our friendship, having you helping me with all of this, you have kept me from turning into something cold and heartless like those demons are. I wasn't entirely joking when I called you an angel, you're important to me. Never forget that. "

Felicity was stunned, she had hoped that in some way other than technological she had helped Oliver fight his battles but she never expected him to call her an angel, or entrust her with something as precious to him as that picture was. The more she had gotten to know him, the more she had wanted to earn his respect. She had pushed herself much harder than ever before because she knew that what he was doing was right. In her life it had been so hard for her to gain respect from people, the men in her field never took her seriously no matter what she did and women didn't understand her fascination with all things techy. When Oliver had expressed respect for her skills the other night she had to fight hard not to sob with tears of joy that someone, finally, accepted her. What he had just told her moved her in an entirely different way, she was really part of this group and he saw her as an equal. She had been able to help him. She looked up at him and for once in her life no words came to her, she just stood there staring at him as the impact of his words shook her to the very core.

Oliver stood watching her, watching how his words affected her. He had been worried that he wouldn't be able to find a way to show her how much she meant to him, that anything he did for her would be perceived as some sort of offer for a romantic relationship. What he had never realized that the thing she had needed most was acceptance and respect. For most of his life his interactions with women had all been about seduction, flirtation and manipulation which was the main reason why he ran when he and Laurel started to become serious. In the gilded halls of the rich and famous, respect and acceptance was rare. He had been surrounded by people so filled with secrets, with lies, with fear and self loathing that he had no reference point for an honest, sincere relationship. Of course back then he didn't know that. The island had taught him loyalty, Diggle and Felicity were teaching him honesty, respect and sincerity. He used to think the shipwreck had been the worst thing that ever happened to him, that it had destroyed his life. Lately though he was thinking that it was the opposite, the shipwreck, the island, the torture, the hellish 5 years, they had taught him how to live. He put his helmet down on his bike and walked up to Felicity and held her as he would a dear, dear friend in need. He held Felicity like he should have been holding Thea since his return, he held her and just offered the comfort of his friendship, of respect, of compassion and of love, real love. The way a family should love each other. She held onto him tightly for a minute, then took a deep breath and let go.

"Omelettes, your place, 45 minutes. Can't wait. " She smiled up at him and walked to her car. Nothing else needed to be said. Oliver got on his bike, started it up and headed home.


	6. Chapter 12 Revelations and Preparation

Chapter 12

The alarm went off and Sam reached over to turn it off. He and Dean had gone to bed early for them, they both wanted to curl up in the monstrous beds, Sam had won the master bedroom in a coin toss. Sam remembered laying down on the bed and realizing that he could stretch his arms and legs all the way out and none of his limbs would hang over the edge. He had almost fallen asleep with his clothes on when he remembered the tub. Forcing himself back up he stood and walked into the bathroom. The tub was huge, he really wanted to take a bath but thought that it would probably take an hour for that thing to fill, then he noticed that you could break it into two sections. "Damn it must be nice to be rich. " He thought to himself. Sectioning it off like that it probably would allow it to fill pretty fast. He secured the little wall between the two sections of the tub and started filling it, there was no way he was going to pass this up.

As he waited for the tub to fill he walked to the window and looked out at the pool, spa, rock feature and the forest beyond. It was the night before a full moon, out here away from the city lights he could see all the stars, even pick out a few constellations. How long had it been since he had looked out a window of a hotel room and saw something other than parking lots, strips joints, liquor stores or pawn shops? Admittedly not every place they stayed was a dive but for the most part none of them would ever be found on a Top 1000 best hotels to stay at list. He turned to go back into the bathroom, he stripped out of his shirt, brushed his teeth, skimmed out of pants and underwear and stepped into the tub. It was filling a lot faster than he thought it would, there were several faucets that were pouring water into the tub at a pretty quick rate. He found the dials for the whirlpool jets and started turning them on. "Oh my god.." he breathed out in a delighted gasp. He and Dean tended to ignore aches, pain, injuries and sore spots in their bodies but the jets picked them all out. He shimmied and twisted this way and that to focus the jets on all the tense muscles in his back and legs, they even had jets coming out of the floor of the tub. As he focused on his body relaxing, the stress in his mind washed away he closed his eyes and reached his hand out to turn off the faucets. He just floated there, being massaged by water. He was as close to a meditative state as he had ever been. There were no thoughts in his mind, no fears haunting him, no worries about hellhounds coming for Dean, just peace and quiet. "Thank you for this Oliver. Thank you." he thought to himself. After about an hour the water started growing cold, he stepped out of the bath, toweled off, pulled on some sweatpants and walked back into the bedroom. Upon pulling back the comforter, which was probably worth more than the Impala, he found cotton sheets that were so soft they almost felt like silk. As he slid in between the sheets he noticed a little menu on the table next to the bed. "If having your breakfast prepared in room please call an hour ahead a time and let us know your choices for breakfast. " Right before his eyes closed into what ended up being one of the deepest sleeps he had in months, he set his alarm for 900 am.

The numbers on the clock read 900 and Sam reached out for the phone. He hadn't felt so rested in months. He remembered with a smile that his last thought before he fell asleep was what he wasn't going to order for breakfast. He dialed the number listed on the menu, it was picked up on the first ring. A slightly Scottish accented male voice spoke

"Good morning Mr. Winchester, this is Chef Corbin. What would you like for breakfast ? " It took Sam a second to respond to being called Mr. Winchester and to process the fact that the chef was answering the phone.

"Hello Chef Corbin. Good Morning, I would like you to bring everything you have ever thought of putting in an omelette. I would also like fresh fruit but no grapes, honeydew or cantaloupe melon please. Also rolls, not bread, but rolls with several options of jams and spreads. The freshest juice you have and espresso. Also can you make it for 1030? I don't think my brother is up yet. "

" Of course sir, would you like any pancakes or waffles? " Corbin asked.

"No, dear god no. Just what I asked, and some high quality bacon. " Sam figured if Dean didn't get at least bacon, he'd probably die from shock. "Thank you Chef. Oh, and uh, is it customary to tip you? " Sam didn't want to sound like an idiot but he didn't want to insult anyone either.

"Thank you for asking but gratuities are added to the bill automatically. I will be there with all you requested at 1030. " Chef Corbin hung up the phone. Sam hung up the phone, stared up at the ceiling and figured if worse came to worse tonight at least he would have had one of the best meals of his life, not to mention that amazing bath. He lounged in bed for another 30 minutes or so then Dean knocked on his door.

"You awake Sam? "

"Yeah, come on in. " Sam sat up in bed as Dean opened the door.

"Well just look at you. I think that bed is almost big enough for you. " Dean said as he leaned against the door frame. Sam threw a decorative pillow at his brother.

"Sleep well? " he asked Dean

" Yeah, I may not have had the whirlpool tub but my shower had one of those massaging heads and it actually worked. After 30 minutes with that thing I straight passed out in bed. What's for breakfast? " Dean asked.

"Just wait for it, it'll be worth it." Sam replied with a sneaky grin on his face. Dean cocked an eyebrow and wondered how exotic of a meal Sam had ordered.

"Ok. Well, I was thinking I should go get the gear now before John shows up. I saw cameras all over the parking lot. Probably be best to take the Impala out for a drive, pack what we need in the bags and come back up here. Shouldn't take too long. "

"I pushed breakfast back to 1030 so that should work. Want me to come with you? " Sam asked

"Nah, I'm just going to drive around the corner and back. I seriously doubt anything is going to jump me out here. Probably be back in 15-20 min tops. "

"Sounds good. See you then. "

Dean turned and walked into the living room, grabbed the keys for the Impala and the room then headed to the elevator. The doors opened on the ground level, as he walked into the lobby proper he heard " Good morning Mr. Winchester. Did you sleep well? " echoing through the lobby. He jumped a bit , turned around and looked at the receptionist. She was a pretty redhead who looked she had just started her shift. Dean walked over to her " Yes thanks, but call me Dean ok? Mr. Winchester makes me feel old. " He was starting to wonder if they pulled stills from the cameras around here, printed them out and tacked them to a clipboard with room numbers and names. It was a little creepy how people kept recognizing him. The receptionist, her name badge said Star, smiled at him and asked "Is there anything you need Dean? "

"Um no, my brother ordered breakfast, I'm just going to grab some things out of the car. "

"We can do that for you if you'd like. " Star offered. No wonder rich people were so out of shape , Dean thought, they never had to do anything .

"No, it's alright. It's looks like a great day outside and I want to stretch my legs. " He said with a smile and walked off before she could offer to do anything else for him.

Now that it was daylight and Dean could see the grounds of the hotel he had to agree with Sam's assessment that Oliver Queen was the Vigilante and that Oliver was saying thank you for saving his life in his own way. There was no way in hell that John knew the owner of a place like this who happened to "owe him". After Sam had gone to bed last night, Dean had logged into the laptop and done some research of his own. Contrary to Sam's belief he didn't mind technology, it was just that Sam navigated the web a lot better and faster than Dean, plus Dean liked the feel of books. He'd never admit that to Sam but there was something solid about holding a book in your hand and researching the old school way. He was however, not incompetent on the net. In his researching he discovered that Oliver owned a club called Verdant and Dean was damn sure that was where he was operating out of. He also knew that John was John Diggle. He had been hired as a bodyguard/driver for Oliver when he miraculously reappeared after being missing/ presumed dead for 5 years. He had created a quick timeline of Vigilante sightings and matched them to when Oliver was in and out of town, and they matched up. He had read the rumors of an female IT administrator at Queen Consolidated who had suddenly been promoted to Oliver's personal assistant when he took over the business while his mom was in jail. She was pretty in an intellectual kind of way, her name was Felicity Smoak and Dean had her pegged as Oliver's other helper. He had read all about the trial of Oliver's mom and the jury verdict. He wasn't sure if Oliver had bribed the jury to let his mom off but that was something he couldn't judge the man for if he had, she was family and that was all that mattered in the end to Dean. It seemed that Moira had tried to come clean in whatever corrupt business she was part of but Dean had a feeling that she had a lot more secrets that even Oliver wasn't aware of.. That wasn't any of Dean's business though. He had managed to avoid the valets and reached the Impala on his own, the engine of the car roared to life as he turned the key, he smiled a bit. Baby never let him down. He pulled out and headed down the country road, found a dirt road, pulled off and drove about 200 ft down to make sure he wouldn't be seen from the road. He turned off the car, walked to the trunk and opened the compartment that held all their weaponry.

60 demons, Lillith must be getting desperate or this was some elaborate trap for him and his brother. Oliver's plan had the advantage of being something that no hunter would have ever tried so the demons would hopefully be completely caught off guard. The only thing that concerned him was if there were some demons there that had crawled back after the trick with the exorcism and the PA system, if they let the others know they could prepare some way for it. I guess they could check for ear plugs or something, although Dean felt that most demons didn't think that way but who knows. He pulled all the usual weapons from the compartment, packed them in the duffle bags and got back in the driver's seat. He started thinking what life as a hunter would be like with access to resources like Oliver had. Hell he could buy every single sacred or cursed object around the world that was on the black market and either use them or destroy them, fly to jobs on a private jet, order up custom made silver weapons and then pay the Pope to bless them. The job would be a lot easier, or at least more comfortable. "Well it's nice to dream anyway. " he thought. A smile crossed his face when he thought of how relaxed and rested he felt and how rested and happy Sam had looked this morning. Sam's eyes had some of that old excitement and freedom in them when Dean had asked him about breakfast. Dean had actually had an entire night sleep without any nightmares of hellhounds, vampires or the yellow eyed demon. "Mr. Queen, whatever else you have been or are, you gave Sam and I a little bit of peace. We won't forget that. Ever. " he vowed as he pulled back into the parking lot. The night shift valet must have passed the word that the owner of the Impala was a bit possessive. The valets all stepped back from their podium and waved Dean through to the parking lot. Dean just laughed and parked.

Dean made it back to the room about 10 minutes before Chef Corbin showed up, he watched as Sam paced the room in sheer excitement for breakfast.

"Sam, really what is this with you and food lately? " Dean asked.

Sam stopped pacing and a bit of sadness crossed his face. "Jessica liked to cook, she taught me how to cook a lot of intricate dishes. Even though we were both so busy with school and work we always made time to have one amazing meal a week, sometimes we went out or sometimes we made it but the rule was it had to be healthy and as extravagant as we could either afford or cook at the time. I really hadn't thought about it much anymore but lately I've missed the meals. " the doorbell rang and as Sam walked to the door he looked over his shoulder at Dean, "One of her favorite things was making omelettes on weekend mornings. "

As he opened the door Dean saw that there were several dozen eggs on the tray the Chef had and dish upon dish of various ingredients to put in omelettes. Behind the chef was a sous chef with another tray of rolls, jams and jellies, fruit, a few pitchers of different juices and an espresso machine. They had brought enough food to feed an army, good thing he and Sam could eat like one when the occasion presented itself.

"Thank you Chef. " Sam said simply and got out of the way to let the Chef and his assistant get to the kitchen. The brothers sat at the breakfast bar and ordered the craziest omelette concoctions they could think of, they laughed and joked with the Chef and his sous chef Michael, Sam was entranced by the precise and practiced movements of the chef's hands. All in all it was the best 2 hour breakfast they had ever had, as the chef's cleaned up the room phone rang. Dean went and answered it.

"Hello?"

"Hey guys. It's John, how's your morning going? "

"Best one we've had in awhile. You'll have to thank your friend for us. We're going to hate to leave tonight." Dean replied.

"Then don't. My friend said you guys can stay as long as you like but he would like you to at least stay through tomorrow night. You'll probably need the rest. " John said. Dean decided that that was the closest John was going to come to revealing that Oliver was Arrow.

"Tell him thank you. " Dean said softly.

" Sure thing. Look I am going to show up in about an hour. I'm bringing a different car than the car we are taking to the party so don't act surprised when you see it. Be downstairs and ready to go around 130. Got it? "

"Got it." Dean replied. John hung up. Sam looked a question at his brother.

"We need to be downstairs in an hour. Hopefully by then we can move. I think I need to do this job in sweats, my jeans probably won't fit right now. " Dean collapsed on the couch. "Oh and John said his "friend" requested we stay through until tomorrow night at least. Actually he said we can stay as long as we like."

"Really? Did he say why?" Sam asked.

"Nope, but I am not going to disagree with that request one bit. You never told me that Jessica liked to cook and you had learned how. "

"After she was killed and we started hunting I figured it was not really important. It's not like we stay anywhere we can cook. " Sam said.

"True, but we can eat somewhere other than diners you know. Just ask ok? " Dean replied. Sam smiled at him.

"Ok. " They finished up the last of their coffees, got dressed and headed downstairs to wait for John.

Felicity had made some delicious midnight omelettes and the three of them had slept as well as could be expected. When Oliver had woken up he met the other two in the kitchen he started going through the checklist.

"Ok" Oliver said "Trucks. Find any ?"

" I got you two water trucks, sorry best I could do on short notice. I did rent a Uhaul truck big enough for the DJ gear and used an online rental service to get an industrial generator from a local hardware store. " Felicity replied.

"Perfect. Dig? "

"DJ is fine with us using his gear, says it will cost $500 to rent, it's a deal actually. I can get it from his house whenever. "

"Good, ok I'll go get the salt and I have to do another quick errand. Who do we have to drive the trucks? I want them to park them, set them up, start the pumps so all we have to do is turn the nozzle to on when we get to the fight. "

"I have some old army buddies, they ran construction stuff back then. They want the cash and they won't ask questions. " Dig replied.

"Perfect. I want to stage everything up at the Queen Warehouse where we met Sam and Dean." Oliver had been thinking about it. The pumps could be turned on and primed and all he and Diggle would have to do would be to point them and flip the switch. He didn't want any other people in the crossfire, there were enough innocent lives at stake.

"Dig, pick up the brothers in your driver outfit, grab one of the cars from the garage. You picking them up in your car would look odd. No offense. "

"None taken. " Dig smiled.

" Felicity, go with Dig and set them up with earpieces so we can coordinate. Do we still have some of those small cameras you can run from here? I would like you to be able to watch and tell us if anything is getting set to surprise us once this starts. " Oliver asked

"I have three, used to have four but one got shot awhile ago and I haven't replaced it yet. I was trying to fix it but I don't think I can. "

" Just buy a new one, fix the other one later. Just for future reference. OK three will work. I will set one up on the roof and Dig, you secure one to the door where you enter. We can put a third one monitoring from one of the trucks. " They were small cameras but had very wide angle lenses, they also were mounted on a flexible stand so they could be wound around pipes or whatever was available. They had proved invaluable on several occasions. "We need to be at the Queen Warehouse with everything around 130. Sam and Dean will be turning on the nozzles to the trucks, they can run to the door and meet you to rescue the kids. I'll be on the roof. Did you see an easy way to get to the top on the east side when you went and checked it out ? He asked Diggle.

"Yeah there was an outdoor stairway that went straight to the roof. You want me to help carry that salt up top. "

"Yeah. This is going to be all about timing. Felicity, I am going to have you in the back of that box truck to turn on the recording. I want you to turn it on and drive away in your car. Just follow us to the warehouse in your car. Get somewhere safe with your laptop and monitor us after the recording starts playing. Do not stick around please. Hopefully that exorcism distracts the guards around the building enough that we can run up to the roof with the salt, as soon as you get the salt up top Dig, turn around, go back down and meet the Winchesters at the door. By then the water should be flowing into the place and I will start dumping salt for whatever good it will do. I'll cover you guys with arrows from the top and hope that no one decides to join me on the roof. If that happens I will most likely jump into the warehouse, getting those kids out is the main priority and I am not going to get caught up fighting with something when I could be covering you from somewhere or keeping more demons distracted. " Oliver said.

'My friend will give you earphones Felicity, those speakers are going to be incredibly loud trust me. Put them on before you push play ok? " Diggle's friend used to DJ at raves out in the middle of the country. You could hear his gear for about a mile before you got to the party. "Oliver, we need to meet back at the club first though before we head out. There's something we need to do, plus you should probably pack an extra quiver of arrows. Your usual 24 won't be enough. " Oliver had to agree on that point.

"Ok what time? " he asked.

" About 12 or so I guess. Shouldn't take that long. " Dig replied.

"Sounds good. I need to get going then. Dig, fill the Winchesters in on all this when you pick them up, save us time. I want to get those kids out by nightfall understood? " Diggle nodded his head and headed down to the garage to get a car.

Felicity looked at Oliver " What's this other errand? " Usually she didn't pry but she was nervous.

"I need to get the cash to pay Diggle's friends so am going to run by the bank. Can you go to the truck rental place, sign for them and let Diggle know when that is done so he and his friends can come get them? "

"Sure thing. See you around 12 at Arrow HQ then. " She said. He nodded a bit distantly, his mind focused on the next few hours and headed to the garage to get a car, some cash and a lot of salt.

Oliver had to work fast to get everything done, he was doing a few more things than just getting cash at the bank and ended up having to pull the "I'm rich so just do it. " attitude in the end. He hated doing that but sometimes it was all that worked. He got back to Arrow HQ about 5 minutes after 12, his car holding 100 lbs of salt. The clerk must have thought he was having one hell of a margarita themed party. He punched the code in and entered the room, as soon as he saw Felicity and Diggle he knew this wasn't going to be a casual meeting. All 48 of his arrows and his bow were laid out on the table and Felicity was holding a piece of paper, silently reading to herself, Diggle had a glass bottle with a cross on it and a Bible.

"Hey there, what's all this? " Oliver asked. Felicity looked up at him.

" We thought, well, I had a rabbi write out a blessing for protection that I added a bit to. Dig had a friend who has anointing oil blessed by the Pope and he found a blessing to say too. We just figured it wouldn't hurt. We wanted you to be here for this. If you have something you believe in or a blessing that you know you could say something as well. I'm going to say mine in Hebrew but I'll say it in English too just so you know what it is. " she said. Oliver nodded.

"Thank you, I do actually have something to add. Interestingly enough it started popping into my head when I had that flashback the other night. Maybe something is watching us. " He said softly. He had been wearing the little archer figurine since his first run in with the demons, he pulled it off his neck, placed it on the table next to the arrows and motioned to Felicity. "Thank you for thinking of this. " he said to them.

Felicity took a breath, held one hand out over the table and started speaking in Hebrew. Oliver didn't know the language but he let the intensity of the feeling behind her words wash over him. He saw Diggle close his eyes and take some deep breaths as well, centering himself and preparing for the battle ahead. It wasn't a long blessing, when she finished she said : "This is the translation."

"In the name of God, God of Israel

To my right, Michael

And to my left, Gabriel

And before me Uriel

And behind me, Refael

And upon my head, the Shechinah

Protect this man on his journeys

Keep him safe from all evils

Send your angels to guide his aim and help him this night. " she took a deep breath after the last sentence and closed her eyes.

Diggle opened up the bottle of oil. 'This isn't so much a blessing but it seemed appropriate. Back in Iraq and Afghanistan we used to say this one a lot." He dipped his finger in the bottle and dabbed a little of the oil on each arrow tip. When he was done he took a deep breath, looked Oliver straight in the eyes and said :

" The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he refreshes my soul. He guides me along the right paths for his name's sake.

Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever." Then he closed his eyes and bowed his head.

Oliver took a deep breath to steady his voice, there were so many emotions rolling through the room he wasn't sure he could speak. He picked up the figurine and held it over the arrows.

" Shado made this for me. She had been teaching me about Chinese mythology and religion while we trained archery or were sparring. This is a figure of the Chinese god of Archery Houyi she carved a little blessing into it and gave it to me. It came to me the other night when I was having trouble processing that the kids were being tortured. I'll say it in Chinese then in English." He closed his eyes and focused on Shado and her father, on Shado's determination to teach him and her eventual love for him. He dove down into his soul and found his center as she had always told him to do. He started speaking in Chinese, once again he felt his senses get sharper and his concentration become more focused. He recited it three times then repeated it again once again in English. By the time he was finished all the nervousness, the anxiety and the fear of what he was going to be facing had vanished. All he felt was a steely resolve underpinned by an overwhelming sense of calm and focus. He was beginning to understand what Shado had been trying to tell him about finding his center. It wasn't a physical sense of balance, it was a spiritual, emotional and mental one.

"Houyi teach me, guide my aim, guide my arrow.

Houyi protect me, hide me from my enemy's eyes

Houyi guide me, help my heart stay true and pure

Houyi save me, may my arrows always protect others"

When Oliver finished, there was a silence that followed, the room felt electric yet calm. No one wanted to speak. He opened his eyes and looked at the other two. They were ready for this now, they had done everything that could be done to prepare. He put the necklace back on and waited until the moment passed on it's own. Diggle was the first to move, he went over to Felicity, hugged her and looked over her head at Oliver. The two warrior's eyes met and in that moment they became united as one to face this threat. He released Felicity as he said "We need to go get the Winchesters. Felicity let's get all the gear and head out. " She nodded and looked at Oliver.

Oliver motioned for her to wait, reached into his wallet and pulled out the picture of Laurel as he had promised. He handed it solemnly to Felicity. She held out her hand and gently took it from him and looked into his eyes. She had never seen him this focused or controlled, it gave her hope for the upcoming fight. He looked like a warrior, not a vigilante, not a confused, hurting man, but an experienced warrior who had a goal in mind and would not be stopped. She gave him a little smile, turned and joined Diggle as he walked out to the car.


	7. Chapter 13 Battles that Bring Shadows

Chapter 13

Sam and Dean were waiting outside when the limo pulled up.

"Well John wasn't kidding. " Dean said to Sam. It parked in front of the brothers and John got out of the drivers side. Dean had wished John would have been a bit more forthcoming in the phone call as to what not to be surprised about. John was dressed in a suit and now that they could see him daylight Sam and Dean would have to admit he made an impact. Standing maybe an inch shorter than Sam he was solid muscle and he had a lot of it. Dean figured John's arms were about twice the size of his and he probably could bench press both him and his brother's weight easily. John was all business as he stepped around to the passenger side door and opened it for Sam and Dean, his movements almost predatory as if he was expecting trouble. Dean wondered if Arrow and John had spent some time trying to prepare themselves for this. "Poor guys. " Dean thought "There is no way to prepare for this. "

John opened the door and Dean looked in and wasn't all that surprised to see Felicity Smoak sitting at the end of one of the seats. He was so tempted to ask her how Oliver was but he saw that she was trying very hard to hide being scared so he restrained himself and sat next to her. Sam slid in behind him and sat on the seat across from Dean and Felicity. John closed the passenger door, got back into the driver's seat and they drove off. Felicity stared at Dean and Sam as if unsure how to start the conversation.

"Hi, I'm Dean, this is Sam. Although you probably already know that, everyone else around here seems to. " Dean said. "You would be?"

" Felicity, I'm Felicity. " She said quietly. " I help the Vigilante sometimes. Anyway he wanted me to set you guys up with some things and John will tell you what's going on. These are earpieces. " She handed the brothers a small piece of electronics that they had never seen before. There was a button on one side and Dean figured that was supposed to face out. " You put them in like this. " She turned her head, moved her hair out of the way and demonstrated how to insert them. " When you push the button you can talk and we will all hear what you say. I will be watching you guys using these cameras over here and will let you know if something is trying to surprise you or if anyone needs help. I'll also monitor police scanners in case someone decides to call anything in. Not likely in that area of The Glades but you never know. Also we weren't quite sure what to do with the kids after you broke them out. We don't really have enough people to be waiting with a truck to take them somewhere to keep them safe. Any ideas? "

Sam looked at Dean. "We could…" Sam started

"No...no way. She doesn't need to get her claws in anyone else. Second idea." Dean replied. He was not going to bring Ruby in on this, not working with people who would have no idea what she really was.

"OK, realistically we are going to have 25-30 kids who are panicked, most won't be able to listen to instructions like step over the line of salt and stand in the middle of the circle and we won't have time to get them all in one place and draw a ring around them. " Sam stated.

"Sam." Diggle said from the front. " We got 100 lbs of salt and an outdoor stairway to the roof. Could we draw most of a circle, get the kids up the stairs to the roof and close it when they are all there? "

"That could work. " Sam replied. "Assuming nothing disturbs the rest of the circle while we are herding kids it would be perfect. "

"What if the salt was stuck to something? " Felicity asked.

"What do you mean? " Dean said

"Well we could make a circle with double sided tape and pour the salt on it. Is it ok if the salt is covered with something? We can make a double layer of tape, one on the floor, pour the salt on it, then stick another layer of tape on top. That way the kids could run over it without breaking the circle right? "

"Why the hell have we never thought of that Sam!? " Dean exclaimed. " We cover up devil's traps and other spells all the time. Jesus! Felicity you're a genius! " She shot Dean a brief smile. Diggle looked in the rearview mirror.

"Felicity, I know what you're thinking and no. I won't let you and neither will he." he said. "You're supposed to turn on the recording, split, be our eyes, keep us safe and stay out of trouble. " Diggle saw her eyes narrow. Damn it.

"John, we're parking that truck about 300 ft away. There won't be anything around there. What I was thinking was that we could rent another truck, park it behind one of the pumper trucks, make a taped salt circle in there and have the kids run into it. The circle should keep them safe and when they are all in it, the last one shuts the door and the brothers here drive off in it. I know where I need to be to make this work. I won't stray from that plan I promise." she said. Diggle wasn't buying it but he wasn't going to argue with her in front of the Winchesters, he was going to clue Oliver in though. He could see Sam mulling the plan over in his head.

"It makes sense. " he said.

John felt he had to step in at this point. "This is all making the assumption that none of us get incapacitated and your tape holds. We need a backup idea." Felicity stared at him.

"I will drive it if you guys can't but only if there is no one else.." She said. Diggle had been afraid of that. "He can't tell me no and he knows it. The kids are the priority. " Diggle found that he had no reply to that statement. He and Oliver were going to have to teach Felicity how to fight soon it seemed.

"Fine, but you tell him this. " Diggle wasn't mad at her but this was her idea so it was up to her to inform Oliver who would probably be livid.

Sam and Dean had watched the conversation with interest, they looked at each other and remembered various women who had tried to get involved in their fights with the demons, vampires etc and most of it had ended badly for the women. Felicity it seemed was trying to become a more active part of the team but it was obvious she had no training, just a wealth of courage. Sam raised an eyebrow at Dean, suggesting that maybe they should say something to help John out and keep this courageous but clueless woman out of harm's way. Dean shrugged, he didn't want to get involved because her logic was flawless. He looked at her again, she was petite and pretty. Being blonde she reminded him of his mom and he was sure Sam was thinking about Jessica. Dean sighed and spoke up.

" Felicity, your logic is impeccable but you don't know what you're up against here. If one of those demons comes for you and we aren't there to help the best outcome would be getting killed quickly. We can give you an amulet to keep you from getting possessed but then they will just rip you to shreds slowly.. We have seen it countless times. " Her blue eyes met his and he saw the resolve that was in them as well as her intelligence.

" Dean, what happens to those kids if no one drives that truck? " Then she turned and looked out the window. The three men sat silently for a minute then Diggle sighed.

"Alright then, that's our backup plan. Now let me fill you in with everything that is going on. " The rest of the trip consisted of Diggle, Sam and Dean going over the plan. They pulled up to Queen Warehouse # 2 and Diggle spotted Oliver's bike. He was not looking forward to watching the conversation that Oliver and Felicity were going to have because he already knew Oliver was going to agree in the end. The result of that would be exposing her to way too much danger but what choice did they have.

As he pulled around the side he noticed the pumper trucks had arrived, he had picked up the DJ gear in the box truck earlier today, he and Oliver had loaded the salt into the limo before they left the club. All that was left to do was make the water holy and head out to the warehouse. Felicity and the brothers got out of the back of the limo, the Winchesters helped him load the salt into the cabs of the pumper trucks so he and Oliver could grab it and take it up top. Then they walked into the warehouse.

Oliver was there, standing by the table with some papers on it. He was in full Vigilante gear and he turned to face the group walking in. "Here's the instructions on how to turn the nozzles of the trucks on. Sam and Dean you are going to be driving one truck to the front parking lot and one to the back. Felicity will crank the speakers to full blast about 2 minutes before you get there. Aim the nozzles at a window, turn them on and then meet Dig on the east side of the warehouse where the staircase is. " Oliver looked at Diggle and saw in his expression that something had changed. "What's up John?" Diggle looked at Felicity and so did Oliver. Sam and Dean took a few steps back as this was about to get interesting.

"We came up with an idea to get the kids safe other than letting them run outside for their lives. " She said with a bit more steel in her voice than usual. Oliver had a feeling that he was not going to like what followed next. "I am going to go get another rental truck, we are going to make a protection circle in the back. I am going to use double sided industrial tape, create the circle, pour salt on it, cover that up with another layer of tape. Sam and Dean say that will keep the demons away from the kids. We can park that truck behind a pumper truck and set the other nozzle on the pumper to spray a wide field of water towards the truck where the kids are so the demons are less likely to get to it. Sam and Dean get the kids in the truck and then drive off. " Oliver waited. Felicity took a deep breath. "If something happens where they can't drive the truck off and you and John can't get there I will take the kids to safety. " then Felicity waited.

Sam and Dean saw Oliver's hands tighten in a fist and his shoulders tense up, he was really not fond of this idea at all. Then they saw his hands relax and he walked up to Felicity.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" He asked her in a very quiet voice. This whole idea scared the hell out of Oliver but he was through underestimating Felicity. She had earned his respect and he had to show her that she was as much a part of this team as he or Diggle was.

"Yes." She said simply. Oliver took a deep breath " Ok, but only if all four of us are incapacitated to a point that we cannot get there. Agreed? " he said.

"Agreed." Diggle was stunned but then he started thinking about how the two of them had been interacting lately. Oliver had been underestimating her for awhile, something had happened to open Oliver's eyes to that fact. Oliver was quickly becoming a leader, Diggle was going to have to stop second guessing him. Sam and Dean shot a glance at each other, they both thought Oliver was taking a huge risk but they couldn't fault the reasoning behind the plan.

"Ok then, I think we are all set. Everyone ready? " Oliver asked.

"Almost. " Sam said "He reached into his jacket pocket. "Here wear these, they will keep you from being possessed. " He handed Diggle, Oliver and Felicity the protection charms they always had on hand now.

"Do you wear these too?" Felicity asked. Sam smiled. He and Dean pulled the collar of their shirts down to show their tattoos.

"In our own way. At least we don't have to worry about forgetting to put them on in the mornings." Felicity smiled at him.

"That's it, let's do this. " Dean said. Sam picked up the instructions on how to work the trucks, he and Dean familiarized themselves the controls. Then the two of them popped open the tanks. They each pulled a blessed rosary from a bag they carried, said a prayer in Latin, made the sign of the cross and dropped the rosaries in.

"Water is ready to go" Dean said.

"Can one of you come here and record the exorcism please? " Felicity called from the box truck, Sam went over and recorded the chant. Felicity tested the playback to make sure the file was good and her and Sam hopped out of the truck. She got in the cab of the truck and started pulling out, Sam and Dean headed to the pumpers, Dig to his car and they drove off. Oliver pulled his hood down, put on his helmet, pulled on a sweatshirt and sweatpants over the Arrow gear. He tucked the bow and arrows in a duffle bag and put the strap across his chest, got on the bike and followed the trucks.

Fortunately there was a Uhaul rental on the way, Felicity was going to drop the box truck off, Diggle was going to guard it. She was then going to rent another truck and prepare the salt circle. They had given her a bag of salt before she had pulled out of the parking lot. Sam and Dean were going to stage the water trucks about 3 blocks away and wait for Felicity to signal that she was ready to turn on the exorcism recording. Diggle was going to drive the truck the kids were going to end up in and park it behind one of the pumper trucks. Oliver's job in the meantime was to check things out and clue everyone in if things had changed and pray to every deity he could think of that nothing would go wrong.

Oliver drove by the warehouse and immediately saw things had changed. There were chains on the doors, no guards to be seen. He took a risk and rode the bike down the east side alley in between this warehouse and the next. The outside stairs had been blocked off with rubble stacked a good quarter of the way up it and it looked like they had reinforced the windows more. As he slowed the bike to turn back onto the street he heard low chanting coming from inside the building. "Had they started the ritual already? " he thought. He hoped all the kids were still alive but he had to change plans now. As he started turning out into the street he heard a child scream, a long drawn out horrifying scream that was suddenly silenced. He gunned the engine in a fit of rage and parked a few streets. He slammed up his the faceplate on the helmet and pushed the earpiece to talk.

"We are changing plans immediately. They have holed up, locked the doors, reinforced the windows and started the ritual. Sam and Dean, you are ramming those trucks into the building and turning on both the front nozzles and the ones that open out the the sides. Felicity when are you getting here? " He said

"Be there in 5 " she replied.

"Right. John you pull the box truck up behind the truck Dean is bringing in through the south entrance, I'll ride the bike in behind Sam. Felicity I want you to pull the rescue truck in behind us on the north where Sam and I are. Get it as close to the water as you can. We aren't waiting for you to finish that circle before we start. We need to stop this now. John start that recording in 2 minutes, Sam and Dean close in now. Everyone clear? "

He got affirmative replies from everyone. He slammed the faceplate back down, took the helmet off, pulled the sweats off, strapped the bow and quiver across his back, he had brought the larger one to fit all the arrows and put the helmet back on. He heard Dean's voice over the earpiece.

"Arrow, remember the people are possessed. They are being forced to watch this helplessly as something else controls them. " Oliver took a deep breath.

"Understood and thank you for the reminder. " He pushed his rage away and waited. All of sudden he heard Sam's voice reciting something in Latin growing nearer and nearer. He felt the vibrations of the sound in his bones. That was some serious DJ equipment, he hoped Dig would be able to hear when he got out of the truck. Dig must have decided to pull in closer so he could run to help the Winchesters faster. Oliver saw a pumper truck pull around the corner, turn towards the building and accelerate, he gunned the engine of the bike. He planned to ride the bike around the truck as it smashed into the building, pull in and start shooting arrows. Hopefully he could keep his balance through the water. He had to time it right to pass through the water before it hit full speed. As he pulled closer to the building he could hear a different kind of scream, it seems the exorcism was having it's desired effect. Sam rammed the truck through the wall, Oliver slipped in past it and Sam turned on the water.

Sam had decided to aim the nozzle higher and make a rain of holy water. He figured that way there would be less chance of hitting the kids or any of them getting knocked over when the fighting started. He saw Dean slam through the wall on the other side of the building , apparently he had come to the same conclusion as Sam. Holy water rained down and Sam was horrified with what he saw. It hit him so hard a wave of nausea washed through him. He and Dean had seen plenty of violence, torture and abuse in their time as hunters but this eclipsed all of it.

There were 5 makeshift altars in the center of the floor and there was a naked child on each one. Designs and symbols had been cut into the flesh of the children, blood was everywhere, more blood soaked symbols covered the floors and the walls. The rest of the kids were cowering in the cages. The demons, many of them were naked with symbols drawn in blood on their faces and chests stood in a circle around the altars and cages. One demon stood over each child with a knife, carving the symbols into their flesh. Many of the demons had started writhing in agony at the sound of the exorcism and all of them had started smoking when the holy water started hitting them. There were about 20 however who were smoking but not reacting to the exorcism.

"Shit" he heard Dean say over the earpieces. " Those 20 must have crawled back out of hell after than police station. I bet you they are plugging their ears. "

"Well dealing with 20 is better than 60" Sam replied. He saw Arrow pull the bike in around the front of the truck and come to a screeching halt. Sam and Dean slammed the trucks into park and hopped out and started heading to the altars.

"Stay low!" They heard Oliver command. He and Dean crouched as they ran not at all prepared for what was about to happen.

Before Oliver even stopped the bike he was reaching for the bow and his arrows. He took in the scene in front him but would not allow his emotions to take over, all that mattered now was his aim. The 5 demons standing over the children were his priority. Fortunately they were all facing him but there were demons writhing in agony in between him and a clean shot. The 5 were not reacting to the exorcism even though they were smoking from the holy water. He didn't have time to relocate to a better position either as the 5 demons were still continuing cutting the children. Oliver took a deep breath and started shooting, his vision narrowed to his targets and he started counting arrows;

One - into the hamstring of a writhing demon to clear a path

Two - take out the knife and hand of first demon cutting

Three - second demon cutting child hand and knife hit

Run forward to get better aim

Four - in the shoulder of demon trying to run at him

Five - shoulder of next demon cutting into a kid

Dodge left, aim at arm of next demon

Six - Another shoulder of cutting demon

Ignore the exploding face of a demon that got shot by the Colt

Seven - The last demon cutting a kid looked up at him and raised his hand. Oliver knew if he didn't kill this one he would be pinned against a wall. He switched his aim and nailed that one through the throat.

Then the noise of the battle came crashing in on him.

Sam and Dean had been running towards the kids on the altars to cut them free. Sam had the Colt and was getting ready to shoot the demons that were holding the knives when he heard the sound of arrows flying through the air. As he and Dean watched, Oliver took out 7 demons in less than a minute with perfectly aimed shots and that wasn't the most amazing part of what happened. When the arrows hit the demons a green light started pulsing out from the wounds. The demons looked down at the arrows and their faces grew puzzled then became full of fear.

"How? What is this?!" one screamed.

" No, No! This shouldn't affect us NOOOOO!" another one yelled. They threw back their heads, opened their mouths and black smoke came pouring out as the demons started to vacate the bodies. The smoke was different this time, that greenish light seemed to chase and surround the smoke. As they watched, the light took on a slightly serpentine scaly appearance then it seemed to devour the smoke and disappear.

"What the hell is on those arrows? " Dean asked Sam. Sam just shrugged and they started cutting the ropes that held the kids. They heard Felicity's voice in their ears. "I'm here, truck is backed up and door is open. "

Sam and Dean had their hands full, the kids couldn't walk or move they were so cut up. Diggle, who had put on a hoodie sweater and was using the hood to hide his face, rushed up to the cages and started shooting the locks off.

"I need some of you to help us. " He told the kids. Two older boys and two older girls stepped up.

"What do you need? " one asked. He was tall for his age, maybe 12 or 13, his clothes were torn, his black hair was dirty and matted but his eyes were clear and focused.

"Go help carry those kids to that truck that is parked behind the water truck. Do anything those two guys tell you to do. Anyone else in these cages can't move ? " Some of the younger kids, maybe ages 5-6 were just sitting and shaking in fear. Digg shook his head and started to try to help when a kid got wide eyed and pointed behind him. He turned and caught the iron bar that was coming down on him just in time. The kids started running, older ones carrying the younger ones. Thank God some of them were coherent enough to function. The black haired kid had started giving orders.

Sam and Dean were doing a fire and run pattern. One of them would direct the kids to the truck and the other would fire. Sam was using the Colt only on demons that actively came at them, Dean was shooting anything that moved with the shotgun. One of the kids, a taller one with black hair started organizing the kids in small groups and telling them to run when the brothers finished up with a group.

"Hey kid, good job." Dean said.

"Thanks, my dad is a Marine and I want to join up too when I can. What else do you need?"

"Can you shoot?" Sam asked.

"Yes." then Dean turned around and shot a demon who got a bit too close. Dean saw that John was in danger of getting overwhelmed and Oliver was having to stop shooting arrows to fight off demons and they needed that cover fire.

"Ok my brother and I need to help those other guys. There's only 2 groups of kids left, cluster them up and have them run at the same time. Take this shotgun and shoot anything that looks at you. Once you get everyone in the truck, pull the door down and hop in the cab with the lady who's driving. You have to protect her and those kids. Got it? " The kid looked straight at Dean and nodded, no fear in his eyes. Just determination. Dean loaded the shotgun full, pressed the earpiece button and spoke " Felicity, last two groups of kids coming in. One kid with black hair and a shotgun will be hopping in the cab with you when they are all in and safe. He hops in that cab and you drive as fast as you can. "

" Got it Dean. " she replied.

"Ok kid go!" He watched the kid direct the last two groups of children. As they headed to the truck, the black haired kid turned around and walked backward covering their move to the truck. Apparently his dad had trained him well.

Sam and Dean turned and headed into the fight. Their first priority was getting Oliver freed up to relocate to a cover position. Dean started firing at the backs of the demons that were heading in Oliver's direction and Sam had grabbed the other shotgun and headed off to help John.

The salt shells got reactions from the demons but didn't stop them. A couple of them turned around and started heading to the brothers. Sam and Dean started aiming for faces, they didn't have time to worry about saving people right now.

Diggle couldn't worry about the kids anymore, the demon he was facing was way too skinny to be this strong. Diggle wrestled for control of the bar with the demon but he wasn't getting too far, he decided that even though the demon was strong he probably wouldn't weigh more than normal so he pulled the demon off balance towards him and went for a backward roll in hopes of flipping the demon over him. The demon went flying into the wall and Dig ended up with the iron bar that he then used to hit the knees of another demon that was trying to rush him. Dig flipped himself up and brought the iron bar down on the smoking demon's collarbone, he heard the bone snap and the demon cried out. Diggle then pushed the demon's face into the ever growing lake of water that was covering the floor of the warehouse. He hoped the demon would leave before the human drowned, he felt the demon's struggles get more desperate and he eased up the pressure, sure enough black smoke came pouring out of the mouth and then the person started coughing up water. She looked up at Diggle and said 'Thank you " in between coughs. "Run out as soon as you can. " he told her. Then he turned around to view the fight.

Sam and Dean with the help of some kids had gotten the injured kids off the altar and out to the truck, Diggle saw 3 or 4 bodies with bullet holes in the head or chest, those must have been shot by the Sam using the Colt. The holy water and exorcism recording had done it's job, the symbols on the ground were all destroyed and many of the demons had vacated but the ones that were left were closing in, smoke pouring off them. Dig counted about 20 of them. Felicity's voice came over the earpieces.

"You guys need all the help you can get, Sam and Dean are staying here, I'm driving the kids to safety. "

Oliver had been covering Sam and Dean's runs to the truck with his arrows until he had gotten overwhelmed and had to start fighting hand to hand. He had taken out a few more demons though and as Felicity pulled away he turned and saw 5 demons heading to surround him.

"Little archer, you can't shoot fast enough to get us all. " one hissed out. Oliver replied by rapidly firing two arrows at the demon. The demon dodged one and caught the other and started laughing. He broke the arrow he caught in half and flicked his hand at Oliver who went flying into a pole. Dig launched himself in a flying tackle at the demon who had flung Oliver, hit him low on the back and knocked him to the ground. They heard two rapid gun shots and two more demons went down thanks to the Colt.

"Damn you Winchesters" another voice chimed in. 'Sam, Sam. You won't have to worry about being alone after Dean's contract expires. We'll take both of you right now. " Oliver saw 4 demons rush at the brothers. Dean was pumping them full of shotgun shells and Sam was using his shotgun as a hand to hand weapon, apparently he had run out of bullets. Oliver needed range. He looked over and saw that where the pumper truck had crashed through the wall there were beams that had landed on the top of it. One went from the top of the truck to halfway up a stairway that had led to some sort of foreman's office overlooking the ground floor. That would work. Oliver grabbed his bow tight, pushed off the pole and started running to the truck, as he ran he pulled out a flechette from his arm holsters and went into a baseball slide. The water made him pick up a lot more speed than he had been planning on. He slid past one demon and stabbed the flechette into his knee causing him to drop, knocked another one onto his knees using his bow and slammed into the wheel of the truck. He stood up, jumped onto the truck, ran up the rail and vaulted over the guardrails of the stairs, turned around and started firing. It was a bit harder to see as the pumper trucks were still shooting water into the sky and he knew that would affect the trajectory of the arrows, nothing had really prepared him for firing arrows through a high pressure water spray into an all out fight. All of sudden he felt Shado's hands covering his. It felt like his eyes were somehow acting like a zoom lens on a camera. He saw the shoulders, the backs, the hands of his targets like they were right in front of him. He had about 10 arrows left.

One - in the back of a demon attacking Sam

Two - in the shoulder of a demon attacking Dig

Three - Shoulder of a demon trying to stab Dean

Four - arm of a demon trying to strangle Dig

Five - he let it go and it stopped mid air.

Every time an arrow had hit the black smoke came out of the demon's mouth followed by a green light. Oliver didn't know if that was normal but he didn't care much at the moment.

Four less demons to fight but three were coming at him. If he got pinned into another wall that would make him useless. Sam was out of bullets for the Colt and hadn't had time to reload and the shotgun that Dean was using was stalling them but not making them leave. These demons were determined to kill the 4 men and were making the bodies they were in soak up an immense amounts of damage.

"Enough of this" one of the demons roared, it's eyes went black and Sam, Dean and Diggle all got flung into walls. "You are worms, all of you, you're worthless mortals who will soon bow down to us. If you don't bow you will have the flesh wrenched from your bodies day after day until you become so warped and desperate that you are begging to hold the knife yourself. This ends now. " Oliver aimed an arrow at the demon but it stopped dead about a foot before it hit. The demon looked at Oliver.

"Watch little archer, watch. You will fail these men as you failed those 503 people that died." Diggle, Sam and Dean all started screaming as cuts appeared on their arms, legs and chests.

Oliver snapped, his iron control over his emotions fled and he launched himself from the stairway screaming an angry battle cry in Chinese. His rage was being channeled into action, all he cared about was saving his friends. He landed, absorbed the impact in a forward roll and started running towards the demon. As he ran he saw flickers in his peripheral vision. It seemed like two shadows were running with him. Then he heard whispered commands "left, duck, kick, punch, roll, dodge, joint lock, slip right, stab…" he reacted instantly to whatever they said. He didn't really register what he was doing he only knew that he had to get to his friends.

Through the pain they were feeling as the demon started to rip them to shreds Sam, Dean and Diggle watched Oliver in what seemed like a hopeless gesture. There was one of him and 12 or so of the strongest demons left. As Oliver ran they noticed that same green light that had come from the wounds his arrows caused seem to flicker and dance around Oliver. It was as if the light was coming from him, not the arrows anymore. Once he closed for battle they couldn't believe what they saw. Oliver was reacting almost before the demons moved, it seemed as if he knew what the demons were going to do before they did it and Diggle had never seen him move that fast or with that much control in his movements. There was no hesitation, no thought, just pure movement. It looked like a fight scene from a martial arts movie. Demons went flying across the room or they were getting stabbed by the remaining arrows Oliver had. They saw in a matter of 6 moves Oliver stab three demons, throw two across his back as they rushed him and kick one so hard in the face that blood came gushing out of it's nose and it fell back completely unconscious and twitching to the ground. The sheer level of destruction he was causing was splitting the attention of the demon that was pinning them to the wall slicing their skin to shreds. Dean managed to raise the shotgun up and shoot the demon in the face with his last salt filled shell. The three men dropped to the ground.

Oliver saw the men drop and the demon fall back as he reacted to the shot in the face, this was his chance. He pulled one of his flechettes and flung it at the demon's eyes, he wasn't going to take chances anymore. After he flung it he turned to break another arm and dislocate the knee of another attacker. What the Winchesters and Diggle hadn't been able to see but Oliver had ; was that whenever he connected a hit or touched a demon a small flash of green light erupted from his hands or feet . It seemed to stun the demons for a second, they grew progressively slower and he grew faster. He didn't know if he was somehow absorbing some sort of energy or what but he wasn't going to debate the ethics of the advantage it was giving him at the time. He heard a scream from behind him, smashed another face in and turned to look. His aim had been dead on and the dart was lodged in the eye of the demon who had been hurting his friends, it screamed and screamed, black smoke poured out and the green light that followed this time formed well enough that Oliver at least could make out the shape of a small dragon devouring the black cloud. As soon as the black cloud was gone the remaining demons all screamed and left the bodies they were in and the people they were possessing fell to the ground, Oliver assumed most were corpses at this point.

He started to walk up to his friends when he saw their eyes widen, Oliver whirled around him, ready to attack whatever it was that presented itself, when he saw them. He saw Shado and Yao Fei, they were semi-transparent and flickering with that same green light. They walked up to him, holding each other's hands. The stopped and held out their free hands in a gesture for Oliver to join them. He reached out and clasped the shadowy hands and instantly felt a warmth filling him. He heard Shado say very softly "You have become the warrior I always saw in you." Then Yao Fei said "You not only survived, you became stronger. Never forget that, you survived. " They shimmered into a shadowy dragon and disappeared. Oliver felt tears running down his face and he fell to his knees, exhausted.

Sam and Dean had no idea who the spirits were or how they had managed to hurt the demons but they currently didn't care. They were bleeding from several cuts on their arms, chests and legs. Sam pushed the button on his earpiece.

"Felicity I think we won but we need help. Are the kids safe? "

"Yes, I took them to a Catholic hospital, dropped some names, paid a lot of money and told them not to ask questions. What do you need?" She asked

"First aid kits. Thanks." Sam replied. The people that had been possessed and had survived the experience were starting to come around and Sam had no idea what to tell them or what condition they were in. Right now though he could barely move so helping anyone else was a bit out of the question.

Diggle was watching Oliver, he figured the woman they saw had been Shado, and he hadn't failed to notice that the man they saw was wearing the same hood as Oliver wore. Diggle wondered how Oliver was going to handle all this, or how any of them would handle this. His respect for the Winchesters skyrocketed. They had to deal with these things all the time. How had they stayed sane? He looked at them, Dean had scooted closer to Sam and they were checking out their wounds, they were tearing up what was left of their shirts to act as temporary bandages for some of the deeper cuts. He realized how they had stayed sane, they had each other. He wondered what the demon had meant about Dean's contract expiring. Had Dean made some sort of deal? The only way he could see either brother doing that was to save the other one. Then it hit him, that was exactly what had happened. How was Sam going to go on after Dean was gone? Diggle shook his head and said a little prayer for Sam and Dean, all of sudden praying didn't seem so silly.

Oliver slowly regained control of himself, stopping the tears that were streaming down his cheeks. His body was aching, he had taken a lot of hits he hadn't be aware of when he rushed the demons. His emotions were all over the place and he was so confused as to how Yao Fei and Shado had been here. How had they helped him or even talked to him? He would have thought he was hallucinating again but it was obvious that the other men had seen them too. He slowly pushed himself to his feet to check on Diggle and the brothers. As he did so he heard voices. "What happened?" " Where are we? " " Oh my god where's my daughter?!" Those people that had been possessed were coming around and trying to figure out what had happened. Oliver had no words to explain for them, he barely had words for himself.

"John, you ok? " Oliver asked as he got to Diggle, he crouched down next to his friends and started looking at the cuts.

"I'll live. I don't think I need stitches on these . It didn't really get enough time to get started. " Diggle replied.

Oliver looked at the brothers "Sam, Dean you guys ok? "

"This, this was nothing. Sunday stroll really. " Dean replied as he leaned against the wall with his eyes closed. If he was being a smart ass he was probably ok Oliver figured. Sam just nodded at Oliver and closed his eyes as well.

"You ok?" Diggle asked Oliver.

"Seem to be, couple of cracked ribs maybe, not sure, everything hurts but I don't seem to be bleeding. That's a first. " he replied. They all sat there recovering until the people started walking up to them.

"What happened? Do you know what happened? I remember cutting up my son...oh my god." one woman said. Oliver opened his eyes,. she was naked although he doubted she realized that yet. He looked over at the Winchesters. He saw such sadness in their faces and Oliver realized that these people they had saved would probably end up being medicated or in therapy for the rest of their lives if not in jail. No one would believe their stories and the children being treated, well people would assume they were abuse cases. How did Sam and Dean do this? How did they live this life where a victory still seemed like a defeat? How could he do this? He already felt the weight of his defeats and even his victories and he had just started on this path, those two men had been doing this for most of their lives. He remembered what Yao Fei had said about becoming stronger and surviving. For them he had to continue, for Shado, Yao Fei, Tommy and the 503 people that had died because he hadn't been strong enough then. He had to continue, what other choice did he have.

"I'm back guys and bringing in the kits" He heard Felicity say.

"No wait there. " Oliver replied. She was too recognizable and he didn't want her to see this.

"Too late. " John said. He turned and saw Felicity staring at the wreckage. She had tucked her hair up under a baseball cap and had on sweats so she would be a bit more anonymous but her face was frozen in horror. Blood was mixed in with the water on the floor of the warehouse, there were several bodies missing faces, with bullet holes in them, arrows sticking out of them, naked and half naked confused people on the floor, bloody altars and the four of them leaning against a wall.

Felicity had not looked into the warehouse when she had pulled the truck up, she didn't want to know and had to stay focused on her part. She heard the guns, the screams and had felt the kids running into the trucks. Ralph, the black haired kid, jumped up into the cab with her after a few minutes and told her to drive. She had already decided to take the children to St Agatha's hospital. St Agatha's was in The Glades and the opinion of the Vigilante around here was mostly positive so she decided to name drop and throw money around. She pulled up and explained that the Vigilante had broken up a child prostitution ring and that the kids needed immediate attention. She then gave them the account number to an untraceable account her and Oliver had set up so they could purchase custom items like the suit etc without anyone linking it to Oliver. Then she had turned and left. She had seen the state of the kids and that had horrified her but in no way did it prepare her for the scene in the warehouse. To say it looked like a horror movie cheapened it. There was so much blood, so much pain and destruction. The corpses were hideous and made a mockery of the beauty of life, some of them the faces had been blown completely off, she saw where Oliver had shot some people through the throat but the most gut wrenching thing were the survivors of the possessed.

They were looking around in horror and confusion, some were rocking back and forth muttering things over and over, some were just staring blankly, some were sobbing. One woman was hitting her head over and over into the wall and her body was rocked with shudders and sobs. Felicity's eyes finally found the 4 men, Diggle, Sam and Dean had cuts all over their bodies and Oliver was slumped against the wall but she could tell he was looking at her. She didn't even know what to do, help the men or help the people. She turned her head and almost threw up into the water. The trucks had were still pumping a bit of water and absently she reached up into the cab of the one closest to her and turned off the nozzles. She could still hear Sam's voice chanting from the truck with the Dj equipment. She heard sloshing behind her and arms circled around her chest. It was Oliver.

"The kits, Sam and Dean and Diggle need these. Take them to them please. " she said.

Oliver took the kits and walked back to the other men.

"I'll watch her, you guys clear out.. I'll call the police. I'll hang out until they show up. Get patched up. Go back to that hotel, there's a back entrance, you know the one John. Rest up there."

The three of them helped each other to the other pumper trucks and pulled out causing some more wreckage and debris to fall but fortunately the building had been built back before low bids and shoddy construction. It stayed standing.

Oliver called the cops and reported it as gang violence in The Glades, gave the address and hung up. He walked back over to Felicity who was still looking away from the carnage. He put his arm around her shoulders.

"Felicity?" he asked softly

"Oliver, you're right. I am not cut out for this part. I should stay at my desk and let you do this. I thought I could handle all of this because I have seen you get injured but I can't. I don't know how to understand this. " she started shaking.

"No, I am not right. First off, this is not exactly a normal outing for me. Secondly, you understood what had to be done and you did it. You got those kids out. We couldn't have, we were too busy fighting. You saved those kids just as much as we did. I'm not saying that you should be out here fighting the battles like I do but you can handle some of this. I never wanted you to see this destruction that's why I kept trying to shelter you. You made the choice to come out here. If you are strong enough to make that choice, you are strong enough to handle this. You're an amazing woman Felicity, I've underestimated you for too long. Don't underestimate yourself. "

She looked up at him and nodded.

"Look we need to leave, I'll get my bike. What vehicle did you use to get the kits? " He asked

"My car. I dropped the uhaul back at the Queen Warehouse, it will need to be cleaned as there is blood in the back. I figured Diggle will get the Dj stuff and that truck so I just drove my car and parked it across the street. What do we do about them? " She asked motioning at the people left in the wreckage.

"We've done all we can. The cops will be here in about 5 more minutes so we need to split now. I'll grab the bike and you can hop on the back, I'll take you across the street. " He said. He left the arrows, he didn't care what the cops thought about him anymore. He had saved lives in the only way he could. He and Felicity rode across the street and headed back to the club.


	8. Chapter 14 Resurrection and Acceptance

Chapter 14

Oliver got back to the club and Felicity pulled in right behind him. He walked into Arrow HQ and immediately started changing, he wanted to strip off the memories of what he had seen along with his clothes but knew that would never happen. Felicity walked in behind him and he heard her gasp. He looked down at his chest and arms, he was covered in bruises, by all rights he should have a couple broken limbs and probably some crushed ribs but all he had was bruises. He was thankful but knew he had to have a long conversation with the Winchesters. He needed to know what had really happened, what was the green light, why had Shado and Yao Fei shown up.

" I don't know Felicity, but I am going to find out. I should be a lot more injured than I am. "

"Oliver your dragon tattoo, hold on. " She went and grabbed a mirror out of her purse. They walked into the bathroom and he looked at the tattoo. It had always been an outline, no real coloring to it which is why he was so confused when he looked at it. It was full of greens, red and blues all shifting inside the lines, the colors were starting to fade though. He looked at Felicity " We need to film this, grab my phone. " She ran and got his phone and filmed the shifting colors until they finished fading away.

"I am going to talk to Sam and Dean tonight. I need answers. " He started to turn then caught himself. Felicity shouldn't be alone. "Diggle will probably need someone to help him tonight, he was pretty cut up. Come with me to the hotel and you can take him home. I want to talk to them alone please. "

Felicity heard the tone of his voice and realized Oliver was on edge so she just nodded and they headed to the hotel after Oliver got dressed.

They got to the hotel and knocked on the door. Oliver heard Sam yell "Come in. " he guessed they were in too much pain to move much. He and Felicity walked in.

"Oh hello Oliver, nice to officially meet you. " Dean said in between drinks from a beer, Sam had a couple of empty cans stacked next to him on the table and Dean wasn't far behind. Diggle was drinking too but looked like he was doing it just to be polite. "We figured you'd be stopping by. Want a drink? " Dean asked. Oliver nodded and Dean tossed a beer at him. "I'd get you some Scotch or something but it hurts to move right now. Felicity? " she shook her head. Diggle looked at Oliver

"No one needed stitches fortunately, we just finished cleaning out all the wounds and covering them up. I take it you want to chat with the brothers alone? " Diggle asked.

"Yes, I am not trying to cut you out…" Oliver started to say but Diggle raised his hand to silence him.

"Oliver, when you want to tell us you will. You need answers, hopefully they have them. I'll head out with Felicity. Night guys. Thanks for everything. " Diggle stood up and as he walked past Oliver their eyes met and Oliver nodded his thanks. They shut the door behind them and Oliver sat down across from Sam and Dean.

He looked at the men across from him and said one word. "How?"

Sam smiled a bit, "You have to narrow that down a bit. Let me ask something, what did you guys do to your arrows? We've never seen green light that somehow eats demons. "

So Oliver explained the blessings they had done, what had happened from his perspective during the last fight, showed them the figurine that Shado had carved , the video of his tattoo changing colors. He started to open up a bit about the island. He described Yao Fei and Shado, how they had saved him, he told the brothers more than he had ever told anyone before. The brothers for their part sat there and listened. They listened to him and didn't judge him, didn't pity him. They listened, understood and most importantly believed what he said. When he finished they looked at each other, Dean spoke first.

" There are a lot of things that could be going on, we'd have to talk to some people to get as solid of an answer as you ever get in this business. Sam and I aren't really experts on Chinese mythology or religions. However the most logical and simple explanation, spirit guardians of a sort and a sacred object. Look you and the other people on this island you got stuck on . You went through hell together, you became seriously involved with them, you shared your souls and created bonds. Most people don't ever develop something that strong, it takes a lot of trauma and life experience to become entwined the way you all were.

You said that you remembered the figurine the first time you really interacted with the demons, when you saw what they were capable of then you remembered the blessing when you were having that flashback in the warehouse that night we met. You had encountered something supernaturally evil and that triggered something in you that linked to these other spirits. When you started reciting that blessing to calm yourself, it may have sent out a call to the spirits of Shado and Yao Fei. Summoned them in a way. That was probably that feeling of calm and heightened senses you felt. You were tapping into something other than yourself to calm yourself down. " Dean stopped to take a drink and Sam spoke.

"When Shado carved that for you and put the blessing on it she poured a lot of herself, her soul if you will into it. It seems like you were in love or something close to it and she wanted to keep you safe as much as you wanted to keep her safe. You used that as your sacred object to bless the arrows and recited the blessing three times in Chinese. In our world saying something three times the same way has a lot of power. That is probably when her and Yao Fei's spirits decided they had to get serious. They imparted some of their spirit energy onto your arrows and then they followed you to the fight. In a way they were possessing you when they started telling you what to do during that last fight. You may not know this but you were moving before the demons were. It honestly looked like a martial arts fight from a movie, you were probably a half a second or so ahead of them, Shado and Yao Fei were anticipating the moves and telling you where to go. We've never seen anyone move as fast as you did. That green energy you said was popping when you were hitting the demons, more of their energy coming to aid you. It makes sense that they showed up as dragons too, being Chinese. Dragons are considered very powerful protectors among other things in China. In essence, the two of them crossed over from the spirit world to help you. For them to do that they have to really care about you. It's not easy. " Sam finished. The brothers had been watching Oliver's face as they spoke. It was pretty impressive how much he hid what he must have been feeling. He's face stayed utterly still and blank for another minute or two after Sam finished speaking then the dam broke.

'She told me that I had become the warrior she had always seen in me. " he whispered "Yao Fei said to remember that not only did I survive, but I became stronger. " They watched tears well up in his eyes. "Does this mean that they don't hate me for failing them?" Oliver asked. Surprisingly, given his distaste for emotional moments it was Dean that spoke.

"Oliver, you were untrained. Before you were on that island you lived a life of luxury, your biggest concern was probably trying to figure out how many women you could fit in that tub. You were thrust into a life or death situation with no preparation or prior experience. You survived, not only that but from what you have said you helped some people stay alive a little longer. You took advantage of things and learned how to fight better than most people ever will. You made it back here and instead of turning your back on what you learned you tried to save more people. Take off your shirt. " Dean said. Oliver looked at him, confused.

"Just do it, trust me I'm not hitting on you man. " Oliver complied. Dean took off his shirt and motioned to Sam to do the same. Sam and Dean's chests had scar from knives and bullets scattered all over them just like his.

"We all have scars man. They are reminders. They remind us that doing what we do costs us so we don't forget. The only people who don't have scars are people who never try to make a difference. You could have curled up in a ball and starved back then. You didn't. Be proud of that. Shado and Yao Fei, they knew what you were when they met you. They saw who you could be and they tried to show you as well. They know you didn't fail them because of those scars. You did the best you could, but you can't save everyone. " Dean took another drink and put his shirt back on. Oliver sat there stunned, a huge weight coming off of him. Shado and Yao Fei had come back from a whole other realm to help him. If they could forgive his failure to save them, maybe he could forgive himself as well. He would never forget but maybe that biting, agonizing pain that ate at him night after night could ease a bit.

He looked up at Dean, with a mischievous expression, smiled and said , "Just so you know Dean, if you keep them between 5 ft 2 and 5 ft 4 around 120-140 lbs and they are creatively comfortable with each other you can fit four girls in that tub along with you. " Then he took a drink and watched Dean's face.

Dean slowly lowered his beer can, his eyes wide as he thought through the creative geometry of fitting that many people in that tub. He stood up, walked over to where Oliver sat and hugged him.

'I love you so much right now Oliver. I don't care what anyone says about you. You'll always be my hero. Sammy, tomorrow, reality and porn meet, in that bathtub. Tomorrow, we hunt for women. " Sam bust out laughing then walked to the bar, grabbed some of the expensive whiskey poured them all a drink.

Oliver took his cup and waited for Dean to sit back down on the couch. " Sam, Dean. Thank you. Thank you for this. "

They raised their glasses and Oliver said " To Survival. " They clinked their glasses together and spent the rest of the night talking and laughing. It was one of the best nights any of them had had in a long time.

Oliver had spent the night in the third bedroom but woke up earlier as usual. He listened but didn't hear any movement from the brothers. He dressed and walked into the living area, he was alone. He grabbed a piece of paper and a pen, wrote a note and left two credit cards on the table. The cards just had a business name on them. Then he left quietly. He had a benefit to attend later today and had to start working on the new club he was going to build in the Glades. He had decided to name it Vigilante and he really didn't care if that made people wonder.

Sam and Dean woke up later, they walked out and saw the note and the cards.

" Sam and Dean " the note read "These are untraceable, use them to cover expenses when you need to. Don't worry about the limit. It's covered. " signed OQ with an arrow drawn through the Q. There was also a blank business card with just a phone number on it. They figured that was a secure line to Oliver.

"Huh. Vigilante Ventures. Has a nice ring to it. " Dean said. They packed their things and headed to the Impala.

"We still hunting women today Dean." Sam asked.  
" No, I don't think moving that much would be good for all these cuts. Let's get some more steak and sushi and head out. " Dean replied

"We need to make a stop first." Sam said. He intended to say goodbye to Oliver somehow. They ate their food and Sam tracked down the benefit where Oliver would be at. They pulled up early enough to watch all the arriving VIPs. Sure enough they saw the limo pull up, Diggle got out a bit stiffly but he opened the back door for Oliver. Oliver looked around as he got out and saw the Impala and the brothers standing by the front of it. They waved at him, he nodded back, nothing else needed to be said. The brothers got back into the Impala and drove off and Oliver turned and faced the cameras, more at peace than he had been since he had returned from the island.


End file.
